Take Two Before Breakfast
by fbobs
Summary: I had a lot of help with this. Action story. Re-written to fit several months after season 3 finale. What happens when two terrorists attack a restaurant where Annie and Auggie are having breakfast? Sequel in work.
1. Chapter 1

**Take Two Before Breakfast**

This is a re-write of the story to make it consistant with taking place a few months after the Season 3 finale.

I own nothing. Write this for fun.

**Prologue:**

Somebody would die in the next few seconds.

She had reacted instantly to repulse the attack. She felt herself transition into battle mode. She felt the adrenaline that dumped into her blood stream and fueled her body for a fight to the death. She knew how to use this rage, how it turned her into a weapon. She was on auto pilot now: eyes wide open and unblinking, committed to what was to come like a missile with mission lock on. Self didn't exist for her anymore. Ten seconds after she first saw the terrorists start their sprint for the front door she was in a full adrenaline rage, had accepted the inevitability of whatever was to come. Her life collapsed to the single objective: stop them. No other constraints, no mercy, no rules, take them down, stop them. Both of them. She felt like time had almost stopped. They approached the first door; moved in what appeared to Annie as slow motion. Then, it was "on."

**Chapter 1 – 15 minutes earlier.**

_What a beautiful late August morning this is,_ Annie thought as she headed out of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, along Route 11 towards the Middletown diner. She and Auggie were enjoying a very relaxing weekend trip to the Carlisle Corvette show in Auggie's fantastic '67 427 roadster. _About time we did something fun,_ she thought. She chose surface streets instead of the interstate to the next off ramp just because it would be more relaxing to drive 45, listen to the burble from the exhausts and feel the warm fall air on her face and in her hair. _We really needed a break and some time away from Langley and all the stress of being CIA agents, spies. This last year had been incredibly stressful for both of them. _Her hand unconsciously reached up to touch her chest where the scars of the two bullet wounds still showed even several months after the best cosmetic surgery The Agency could provide. This one-on-one time with Auggie was like a visit to an oasis in the burning desert that had been her life for the previous 18 to 20 months.

They had been dating – been exclusive, for four months now. Their jointly submitted Close and Continuing paperwork had been approved by Joan Campbell, their boss, as expected, but contrary to office rumors, they had only been lovers for the last two weeks. Since, in fact, the evening Annie had persuaded Auggie to come on the trip. It had been the need to get away, spend some quality one-on-one time that had gotten Annie to investigate and find out about the Corvette show in the first place. It seemed like it would be the perfect getaway for them and the perfect time to take their relationship to the next level. Though, as it had turned out, the next level had been only a few minutes away.

Her memories were jogged by a traffic light and a horn that honked, apparently provoked when a car didn't execute a left turn fast enough for the late model 'Vette that was behind it. Annie just shook her head barely perceptibly. Annie drove at the speed limit in the 45 mph zone so the wind noise didn't prevent conversation. Auggie was still uncharacteristically silent; Annie glanced over and got a warm feeling seeing him next to her about as totally relaxed and carefree as she had seen him other than when he was a sleep. She loved to watch him sleep.

The morning was warm enough already that Auggie wore a polo shirt. He sat with his head back while his hair blew in the air that buffeted around the windshield. The side pipe exhausts made their characteristic burbling noise as the engine effortlessly propelled the car with a promise of major thrills just a few degrees of accelerator away. He had enjoyed her colorful descriptions of the scenery, places and people they passed on the trip, often chuckling aloud at a particularly pithy remark.

Annie sat, relaxed and in no hurry to go anyplace, behind the wheel of "their" 435 horsepower sports car. She savored the aftermath of their two uninterrupted nights together out of reach of almost everybody they knew, including her sister in California, and looked forward to a life time with Auggie. She's not sure he's all the way 'there' yet, but she sure is. She just needs to be patient; he'll get there; she's sure of it.

Then she remembered why it's 'their' sports car and couldn't help a chuckle and a bit of a grin. Auggie had given her the car before he left for Africa. He'd intended for it to be hers, title transferred, and all. That didn't go so well. She couldn't afford the sales tax on the appraised value of the car to transfer the title, and he couldn't afford to pay the gift tax on giving it away, which was going to be 45% of the value of the car less $13,000. In other words fifty grand – more or less. The red tape involved shocked both of them. But, bright, capable people that they were, they looked into the law and their options. Auggie couldn't drive, couldn't give the car away, didn't want to sell it and still was attached to it, anyway, so they agreed he would change the title to a collector car. It would remain in his name, but she would pay the collector car license fees and for insurance that would allow them to drive it to car shows and collector car events only. It just didn't make sense to use a 45 year old car, with parts that were somewhat rare and expensive, as an everyday commuter car, regardless of how hot it was. They had agreed to share the cost of a storage rental so the car could be parked inside and be reasonably unlikely to be stolen. They had also shared the cost of a high end car alarm system that disabled the car. She had the only keys. All this flashed through her mind when she looked at how much Auggie enjoyed the ride in their car. He seemed to especially like the wind and the exhaust noise.

This trip had been good for her in other ways as well. It had been a very intense time in her life with Auggie gone, then back, hurt and angry. Their tentative steps toward each other had been interrupted by several hairy missions: the time with Simon, her lover, that ended with Lena's savage attack on them both. Simon was dead; Annie was recovering from being shot twice in the chest and a second attempt to kill her by Lena.

The recovery from the shooting was ended early when she went rogue with an incredibly hairy, almost suicide, mission to Russia to get retribution and terminate Lena before she could spill all she knew to the enemy. She'd succeeded, but the outcome would have been very different if the man next to her hadn't also gone totally rogue and organized her very unorthodox rescue by the Mossad agent, Eyal Levine.

Then there had been all the gun training, both formal at the Farm and off-book at Frank's.

After Stockholm, Auggie had taken it upon himself to arrange for her to be trained to elite levels as a gun fighter by an instructor known as 'Frank' to only a few of the most elite warriors on the planet.

Frank. Just the name almost made her exhausted. The man was a merciless task master, but she'd been really lucky to have access to his training. It absolutely would not have happened except for Auggie. At some point, in the part of his past that he couldn't talk about, and she knew she shouldn't ask about, Auggie had done something that earned him free gun fight training with Frank for life. Since he was blind, he'd talked to Frank and persuaded him to transfer his offer to Annie. It hadn't been easy, but Frank had called up one night and agreed.

Auggie had broached the idea to her when she was on the first day of a 2 week decompression ordered by Joan after a particularly intense mission. He said this was the chance to have training from what he considered the best gun fighter there ever was, and she'd said, "sure." But when Auggie had said, "you don't have enough information to make a decision yet." She had asked, "Okay, what do I need to know?"

Over the next few minutes, he had detailed what sounded like a very rugged course in gun-fighting; Auggie emphasized it was not a shooting course; it was a gun fighting course that went far beyond her advanced training at the Farm. She wouldn't see any bull's eye targets; she would seldom shoot when she wasn't moving, and she would be expected to be able to dive on the ground, roll over, crawl, shoot one handed with either hand, shoot two handed, shoot running forwards, backwards, sideways, and at the same time some of the targets would be moving. And there would be distractions: explosions, sounds of gunfire, loud speakers blaring at her, sirens going off, and she was still expected to focus and shoot.

She would need loose fitting heavy jeans and a heavy cloth long sleeved shirt, gloves (with the tip of the trigger finger exposed on both hands), elbow, knee, and shin guards, and a light helmet, like a horseback riding helmet. Oh, and a gross of foam ear protectors because the training was too strenuous to wear ear muffs. She'd come home bruised and exhausted after every session, but better at surviving gunfights.

It had sounded better and better to Annie as he described it. Sort of like the gun fighting analog to Auggie's hand-to-hand Krav Maga training which was based on brutal efficiency in disabling or killing the opposition as quickly as possible. Auggie's philosophy was if you can't stop them with the first blow, distract them. Ripping off an ear, crushing testicles, poking out eyes, were all mentioned as reasonable distractions. Auggie's training had undoubtedly saved her life multiple times, so she'd thought, _why not go for this Frank guy's training? _And she did.

Frank would teach her to hit all sorts of targets under almost impossible conditions, but it would take a lot of training time, a lot of ammo, and the healing of a lot of bruises, scrapes, cuts and scratches before she showed even the beginning of competence by Frank's standards. Frank encouraged her to participate in IDPA or IPSC matches, but to intentionally not do well enough to stand out. Annie remembered the big grin on Auggie's face when she said, "that sounds like a heck of a lot of fun. Plus, winning gunfights, shooting the bad guy before he shoots me, is way better than losing them."

As her training progressed, she developed incredible respect for Frank. She realized she owed Auggie big time for getting her into a training program that was reserved for only the elite from Seal Team 6, the operatives from the blackest of the black ops part of Langley, and the elite from some other organizations she didn't know the name of, and didn't want to. There was never more than one student at a time. It would have been too dangerous to be in the same pit doing this with another student, and most students didn't want their faces associated with this type of training. With decompression time off, holidays, and weekends, she had spent over sixty ten hour days with Frank so far, and she knew she wasn't done. She had lost count of the rounds fired at his range. So many that Frank had insisted she replace the recoil spring in her Glock 26 and Glock 19 twice already. She stayed at the site in his spare room because she was just too tired to drive back and forth an hour each way after a day of training. Plus, more often than not, there was a night session where she trained to gunfight in the dark. She always went alone – Auggie said it was not a good idea for him to be there, didn't offer an explanation, and she knew better than to ask.

One of the stranger training exercises involved shooting at foam balls about the size of a human head. He'd stick the foam balls in some light cloth bags that he'd gotten a couple thousand of in a surplus store so the hits could be seen. Then he'd give her bullets tipped with colored marker that would rub off so she could tell the holes from one exercise to the next. Then he had them move about as fast as a man could jog moving up and down toward her, away from her, across her path, and at various angles - the object had been to hit them at least twice with three shots at various ranges from almost touching to as much as 50 feet. She had no problem agreeing it would be a useful skill to be able to do that, but remembered how discouraged she'd been when it took her almost 50 shots to hit the first one moving crossways at 25 feet. She'd spent maybe 3,000 rounds of Frank's reloads working on that skill set from all positions and angles of movement before she was finally able to do it with some degree of certainty with the same Glock 26 that was currently punishing her right kidney. She could get hits with the Glock 19 and the little SIG P238, but something about the Glock 26 just worked for her. Frank said it was just a good match for the dynamics of her hands and arms. If she pulled the trigger as fast as she could for two shots they would hit within an inch of each other at twenty-one feet. If she slowed down, the shots spread out to six to eight inches apart at the same distance. The gun just worked for her, and she could conceal it with the proper clothes, which was why she was putting up with the lump in her back.

Frank insisted she had to pack all the time, even at home, to get to the point where it was second nature. He said she'd sometimes be packing where just having the gun would get her thrown in jail for a long time (yeah, DC was her immediate thought; Auggie's family home in Glenco, IL was another, if she ever got to visit). In any event, by using a Virginia address where she received all her mail, she had obtained both Virginia and Utah concealed carry permits that let her carry, off duty, in something like 37 states. Frank had also worked with her on a selection of guns that would cover pretty much any situation. But, Frank had also said not to depend on any of them too much as she'd probably be using whatever she could pick up in the field at the time. She recalled that was exactly what she'd had to do so far. As far as Annie knew, Joan didn't know about her time at Frank's, but she wouldn't be surprised if Joan could tell her when every training session had happened. Joan, her boss at the CIA's Domestic Protection Division, didn't miss much and apparently had sources she didn't even want to know about.

She snapped out of her memories of gun training, prompted by the lump in her back, and glanced fondly over at Auggie for a second. He moved, reached a hand over to pat her thigh, and said, "I love you too."

_How did he do that? _She wondered for maybe the 100,000th time. She said, "according to the GPS we only have 4.6 miles to go."

He sighed and said, "Don't hurry, this is incredibly pleasant - maybe we should drive 35 all the way home."

"Can't do that," she said, "we both need to be back in the office first thing Monday. I'm leaving for Rome later in the week, but I don't want to think about that right now. I just want to soak this up and save it for recall when I'm bored in a hotel room some hot, miserable, dusty place waiting for a contact."

Auggie sighed again but nodded his head slightly.

This trip worked for her in a lot of ways in addition to how much closer she and Auggie had grown. For the first time in months, she slept through the night – didn't have nightmares: the nightmares that related to when she was shot by Lena and to when she shot Lena in the chest in Russia and killed her. Her time in the Russian prison and the escape were brutal and intense. The nightmares that woke her, dripping wet and shaking, scared Auggie. Jut the thoughts of Lena led to a surge of panic and she quickly slammed them back into their box in her head. _Not going to go there, not today, maybe not ever,_ she thought, before admitting to herself the CIA shrink would insist on dragging her through it again, sooner or later, one way or another.

She felt the gun in her lower back. Still. She decided she would take it off and put it back in her purse for the trip home, or change to a different gun and holster that was more comfortable to sit in. She had a small selection of them in the trunk but would have to find a stall in a ladies room to make the change. She had considered the SIG P238 for this morning. It was much thinner and lighter than the Glock, and one of her favorite guns (the whole concept of a favorite gun being sort of foreign but growing on her), but she liked the firepower of the Glock 26 being full 9mmP instead of .380Auto. She also liked the additional ammo capacity: 11 for the 26, 7 for the P238. The P238 was her favorite mouse gun, but not her favorite gun. The Glock 19 got that award, but it was too big for her to carry unless she could wear winter clothes.

As it was she was wearing what she called comfort fit jeans with a CrossBreed MiniTuck holster at five o'clock with the gun set as low as the holster would adjust. A colorful T-shirt with a picture of Auggie's car on it was tucked into the waist band to pad the holster a very little bit. A long decorative vest which hung down a good 4" past the holster with her arms raised over her head, concealed the holster. Running shoes completed her wardrobe. The gun wasn't tiny, but it was really well concealed considering her slim build. Before, she would have dressed differently, but Frank had shown her the Falia Photography YouTube video and introduced her to websites by women who carried every day. With that help, and that of the women instructors at the Farm, she had found she could tailor her clothes to hide guns under about everything except a bikini and still look good.

Frank said she should carry a spare magazine, and she did, but it was in her purse. It rested in the bottom of her purse, but under a flap so it wouldn't show and could be easily retrieved if she needed it. He also said if she was in enough of a fight to need the spare magazine, she would probably be in real trouble if she was alone without backup. That thought made her shiver, and she pushed it back to prevent it ruining the moment.

Ah, as her attention returned back to the here and now, she saw the lumber yard on the right she was told about, and sure enough, about a half mile beyond it on the other side of the road was the sign for the Middletown Diner. She pulled into the left turn lane at the intersection while the light was still green and completed her left turn while taking advantage of the car's stiff suspension to make the turn with less margin to oncoming traffic than one might think prudent, but she liked it just the same. She made a mental note to give the car a bit of a workout on the long 270 degree onramp she'd seen they would take when they merged onto 81 South.

The sudden turn got Auggie's attention though. He lifted his head and remarked, "Getting a bit restless behind the wheel, Walker? Try to keep it shiny side up, at least until I get some of this famous breakfast we've been hearing about."

Her reply was to make a face, crank the wheel hard right and press hard on the brake as the car almost broad slid into the parking lot and forced Auggie to grab for the prayer bar.

"Uh, yeah, right, are we driving in the front door?" he asked. Her reply had been to swerve into a parking spot in the middle of the lot with a bit more verve than one normally uses when parking; but the car just seemed to want that sometimes.

"You win," he said, trying to brace himself against jerks he couldn't anticipate. Then muttered, "You should have tried the coffee in the Motel room."

"Yeah," she admitted, "I should have tried it. I get my coffee, nobody gets hurt. Anyway, we're here."

"Oh yeah, definitely an _arrival,_" he replied with a grin. "I think you are enjoying 'our' car."

"I most definitely am," she replied.

They responded as one and exited the car. They left nothing in the passenger compartment because the top was down; the registration was in her purse, but when she picked up her purse, she activated the ridiculously expensive alarm system before dropping her keys in. _That should keep the car from being stolen, and the three guns in the safe in the trunk secure, or at least make it more difficult to take them, _she thought.

As they turned toward the restaurant door, Annie saw Colonel Abbott get out of his perfectly restored dark maroon '61 Roadster. The Colonel was an old friend from her military brat days that she'd gotten reacquainted with just the day before. Looking at the car Annie thought that if 'they' didn't have the one they did, that would be a really good year to have. The styling was unique in the car's series with a trunk that looked like a preview of the coming Stingray design, but with the long graceful front hood and flowing fender line that tied it to the earlier models. Colonel Abbott, it turned out, had known Auggie, too.

He smiled in her direction, waved, and headed off on an intersecting course. When he was close enough he said, "Good morning, Annie. Auggie isn't this a fantastic top down day?"

"Good morning to you, sir," Auggie replied. "And it definitely is a top down day."

Annie said, "Bring on the bad hair day, I love the feel of the wind in my hair. It's going to be a great drive back to DC." Then, looking at the slight pink on her arms, she added, "I think it's going to be a sun screen day for blondes as well."

Colonel Abbot asked conversationally, "What brings you two here this lovely morning?"

Annie said, "Coffee. Breakfast. In that order. We are famished, and need to get started back to DC."

He looked thoughtful for a moment then said, "I'm meeting a long table full of colleagues and retired colleagues here for our bi-monthly breakfast this morning. Would you mind if I introduced you to a couple of my friends? They knew your Dad, Annie, maybe, probably, better than you did, and they have heard me talk about you, Auggie - some of your exploits have made it into the class's lecture notes. And I think a couple of them might recognize you."

Annie looked at Auggie; she knew that this sort of thing made him very uncomfortable, but he somehow knew she was looking at him, and, sensed her unspoken question. He squeezed her hand and said, "Colonel, I'm okay with that as long as it's not too many of them. And, if you would, please don't let them take pictures of us."

The last caused the Colonel to glance around to make sure nobody was within hearing and said, "So you are still in the game? And Annie's in it too? Okay. Got it. No problem."

Annie recalled meeting him quite by accident at the car show. She had seen this trim, fit, silver haired man with the military posture in the distance, and her heart had almost skipped a beat. He turned slightly, and it was then that she knew it was Colonel Abbot, father of the girl who had been her best friend, Betsy Abbott, before they moved out of Moscow. She hadn't seen either of them since. He was coming their way, and when he saw Auggie, he stopped like he was seeing a ghost. Then he looked at her, and his eyes opened wide in surprise. He had literally started jogging towards them with a smile on his face.

"Auggie, someone from my past, Colonel Abbott, the father of a onetime best friend is approaching, jogging in our direction, and I think, from the way he reacted, he knows you too."

"Colonel Abbott was a legend in Special Forces," Auggie said squaring up his shoulders, "He was my mentor; stopped to see me at Walter Reed. I wasn't very good company then. I owe him an apology and a bit of an update."

Auggie had barely finished when the colonel arrived, slowing to a stop with the coordination and balance of a much younger man. Annie knew he had to be at least as old as her Dad, maybe older.

The colonel saw Annie's look of recognition, gave them a big smile of genuine pleasure, and said, "Captain Anderson and Annie Walker. Seeing the two of you holding hands makes my whole decade. How are you both?" Auggie resisted saluting but offered his hand which the colonel shook with gusto. Then he turned to Annie and received a big hug.

Annie's voice shook a little when she said, "Uncle Fred, it is so good to see you. You look wonderful." as he hugged her. She saw Auggie react to the "Uncle Fred", gave his hand a squeeze and said, "His daughter Betsy and I had lots of sleep overs." Suddenly, she remembered she hadn't seen or heard from Betsy in ten years. She kept a hand on the Colonel's arm but backed away a half step before she asked with some trepidation, "How is Betsy?"

To Annie's relief, he looked happy and said, "She's doing really well. She made it through college with a degree in languages, married a banker, has three kids, and loves being a housewife."

"How is Aunt Barbara?"

"She's doing really well. We're both healthy and enjoying the heck out of retirement. She's going to be really upset to have missed you. She's down visiting Betsy, driving back early Sunday morning. How about you?"

Annie replied, "I'm working in acquisitions at the Smithsonian, making use of my language skills and minor in art history." She could see the flicker of doubt about her story as his eyes shifted back and forth between her and Auggie.

"Auggie, you are looking great," he said looking away from Annie for a moment. "What are you up to?"

"Same as before," Auggie replied then added, "Can we move someplace quieter and less crowded to continue this? This is a total surprise, I'm really glad it happened. I want to talk to you if you have the time, but maybe we can find a table and a soda?"

Annie and the colonel both looked and simultaneously saw a suitable location that also had some sun shade. The colonel nodded at Annie, and she said, "I see a place that should be about perfect, Auggie, we'll head over there,"

When Annie brushed the back of Auggie's hand, he lightly took her elbow and allowed her to lead him while he held his white cane to alert passersby to his condition.

Colonel Abbott saw their quiet familiarity with each other, the seamless way Annie and Auggie interacted, their comfort in each other's space, and correctly guessed they were a couple. He wondered at the fate that had put two of his favorite kids together but figured he might not have a need to know. They got to the table, and Annie offered to go get some beverages. Auggie asked for a diet cola, the colonel for the same. Annie left to get the beverages at a soda stand maybe a hundred yards away.

When Annie was out of ear shot, the colonel turned to Auggie and asked, "Is she read in?"

Auggie replied, "She knows everything about me. Everything. I know everything about her, at least since I met her. We have no secrets."

The colonel sighed and stated, "She's covert too," as he had deduced must be the case.

Auggie started to object but the colonel had said, "It's okay, Auggie, I'm not surprised. I've known her father, Colonel Bart Walker, for 35 years. He was a hell of a good soldier but with more than casual rogue tendencies. He could go out of the box better and more successfully than anyone I knew. He ended up in class rooms like I did, but in his day, he was almost as good as you." Then he added, "I knew Annie during her feisty high school years. She was something else. You could use her as the definition of independence. By then she was already reading, writing, and speaking 4 or 5 languages like a native: accents, colloquialisms, the whole nine yards. She was like a human sponge for languages. I mean she could pass for French in France when she was 15, and they are genuinely hard to fool. But in spite of that, and getting all A's in school, she wasn't an academic in any way shape or form. She ran track, but she quit the team after beating the crap out of one of the male star track team members who didn't understand the meaning of NO. She and my Betsy loved to act. They were always making up plays. I heard she took some theater classes in college." He paused and then added, "I always admired her for all of that and envied her language skills. Her high school French teacher said he couldn't teach her anything; she was constantly correcting him on colloquialisms, and when he checked she was always right." Then, he added quietly, "She'd make an almost perfect spy if she wasn't so good looking, so I'm not surprised at all to find her with you."

Auggie cleared his throat and feeling a bit uncomfortable said, "Colonel I need to apologize for how I acted when you visited me in Landstuhl and Walter Reed…"

He didn't get any farther before Colonel Abbot interrupted saying, "Auggie, no apology required. You were going through a special kind of hell; if you hadn't lashed out you wouldn't have been human. And I have to say, seeing you here today, I'm so very happy you have your life together. You probably still have some bad days, I do, but it's pretty clear you've got Annie who would be on my list as the catch of a lifetime, and I'd bet you're in a job you love. That makes me proud just to know you. In some ways it's an even greater accomplishment than your actions before that day."

Auggie was almost overcome by the man's words and couldn't say anything for a few seconds, so he put his hand up, and Colonel Abbott responded with a Hi-5.

Auggie started to say, "About Annie ..." when the colonel interrupted him again, "It's okay, say no more. I understand, and besides, here she comes back."

As she approached, Annie said with a smile, "Colonel Abbott, are you telling my boyfriend all my childhood secrets?"

Colonel Abbott said, "Of course! But only the good parts." Then looking with some fondness at the two of them he said, "So I need to catch up with both of you, I can't believe I found two people I know at this show, and they are in love. This is a first." He was rewarded by a blush from Annie who shot an adoring look at Auggie and got a hand squeeze and a grin in return.

They had spent almost 2 hours catching up; at one point Colonel Abbot gave Annie Betsy's number, and Annie surprised herself at being willing to call her former best friend. So, while the colonel and Auggie caught up on people Annie didn't know, she had called and spent twenty minutes catching up with her old best friend and Barbara. They all had to deal with some tears, but they also understood coping with being ripped apart. As Annie discovered, Betsy and her family were living about a two hour drive from Annie, and, before the call ended, Betsy and Annie agreed they would get together. They hadn't set a date because Annie's travel schedule was so erratic, but Annie knew the next time she had a couple of days of decompression coming she was going to boycott Frank for Betsy. Oh yeah!

When she rejoined Auggie and the colonel they were getting ready to proceed on their separate ways, but had exchanged cards. Annie gave him her Smithsonian business card as well. He took it but she noticed he didn't spend much time looking at it.

Just before they parted Colonel Abbott gave her another hug and whispered, "Be safe," and added, "Your Dad would be so proud of you," in her ear. She looked at him, hid her understanding behind a completely convincing look of innocence, saw he had figured out her real job, but added, "No worries, Uncle Fred, I've never been attacked by a single piece of art work."

She hadn't confirmed his suspicions but had concluded he'd figured it out early in the conversation because he hadn't asked a single question about her Smithsonian employment - he knew it was irrelevant.

Rather than being uncomfortable that someone else outside of the agency knew her real job, Annie knew that her secret was safe with Colonel Abbott.

Annie came back to the present as they approached the front door of the restaurant. The colonel held the door for them, and they all went into a sizable entry way, a space between the outside doors and the inside doors common in snow country. There were windows between that area and the main dining area in the restaurant. As they passed through the entry way Annie looked over the restaurant through the windows. Pushed subconsciously by her acute situational awareness, she was already almost prepared to chose a place to sit that would give her as much command over what might come in the front door as was possible, given occupied tables and the circumstances.

As they came through the final door into the restaurant, their nostrils were assaulted by mouth watering breakfast smells, almost to the point of being overwhelmed. Annie knew instantly this was a real country breakfast place. She smelled bacon, ham, coffee, and saw trays loaded with huge omelets, toast, thick slices of bacon, diced potato home fries, and of course biscuits and gravy. The food was going to be both good and more than she could possibly eat on her own. She loved this sort of meal but only allowed herself to eat them infrequently. They had a long drive ahead, and she didn't want to stop, but she looked forward to eating her fair share of a hearty meal. Besides, it smelled good enough, and looked good enough, that she was practically digesting herself while they waited for the hostess to work her way to them.

Annie turned to Colonel Abbott and said, "Uncle Fred, we'll get a table and then join you for a couple of minutes after we order - I see where your friends are sitting."

He said, "See you in a few," and gladly headed off through the archway to their left to join his companions.

As she watched Colonel Abbott head away from them, Annie turned to Auggie, squeezed his hand and said, "I am glad he didn't ask to sit with us. I'm enjoying our time together so much that I just don't want to share you with anybody, at the moment. "

Auggie squeezed back just as the hostess approached them and said, "Good morning!" and then asked in a pleasant sunny voice "Two for breakfast?"

As the hostess gathered a couple of menus, Annie spotted an empty table on the other side of the glass window wall that separated the dining area into a main restaurant and an annex, part of which was taken by a long string of tables pushed together for the meeting of colonels. Annie requested to be seated at that table saying, "We know some of the military guys and would like to sit near them."

The hostess looked up from her seating chart, took in Annie's gaze and said, "No problem. Let me check that it's ready and we'll be good to go."

Once they were seated, they took a few minutes to study the menu and make up their minds. There was no Braille menu, so Annie read the selections to Auggie and in a relatively short time they had made their selections. Looking at the passing trays of breakfast being delivered, it was obvious to Annie the portions were huge. She shared that with Auggie, and they decided to split a western omelet. Auggie decided he'd ask for a side of warmed up salsa as well. Just about then the waitress returned with their beverages, and when their order was taken, they each took a sip of the coffee, made sounds that confirmed it was good coffee, and Annie said, "Shall we get this over?"

"Yes," Auggie replied. It was a bit of a struggle to repress his annoyance at the need to share Annie with others on their trip together. On the other hand, he was so proud of her, so happy to be with her, the fact that she was accepted by all she met, and was so highly regarded by Colonel Abbott, made him very happy.

They got up and, with Annie acting as sighted guide, made their way around the end of the long table to where Colonel Abbott was waiting for them with a welcoming smile.

###

Auggie hadn't known his reputation preceded him at the War College. Colonel Abbott introduced him to the men in the immediate vicinity as, "_The _Captain Anderson," and evidently he'd picked them because they had already heard of him. It turned out some of them had his exploits worked into their class curriculums at the War College. Auggie was more than a little embarrassed by the sincere accolades from these men, but held up well.

Standing next to him, Annie was so proud of him that she could burst, but concerned for him as well. She was ready to haul him back to their table at the first sign that it was too much for him to deal with.

For his part, Auggie fought the urge to run and, in the end, did himself some good by accepting their praise and good wishes.

Then Colonel Abbott introduced Annie as Bart Walker's daughter. To a man they all stood up to say hello and shake her hand. She recognized a couple of them as people she'd met years ago in countries far from here. She was amazed to hear the good things they had to say about her late father and had a hard time not getting emotional about it. A couple of them made a joke to her in Russian, and she answered them in perfect Russian, others in French, some in Portuguese, one in Turkish, and finally an oriental gentleman smiled and spoke to her in Chinese. He mentioned the name of the brave man Annie had recruited and thanked her. She was frightened at the breach of security but didn't see a flicker of understanding in any other eyes, so she answered in the same dialect, "Thank you, but please say no more." He nodded, and she turned to Colonel Abbott who was studying her impressed yet again by her incredible facility with languages.

She saw the look but figured it was time to end this. She thanked him and said she saw their breakfast had arrived, and would they please excuse them? They did, very politely offering their cards. Annie couldn't refuse them and asked if they would wait a minute while she got some of her own. She retrieved her Smithsonian cards from her purse and passed them out to a somewhat doubting audience, but they didn't say anything. All in all, it was a fun experience meeting these people and hearing the good things about her dad. She had no idea about his professional career other than when he taught at West Point.

Then, semi in jest, just as they were turning to leave, one of them asked Auggie if she was a chip off the old block. Auggie stood up straight at the unexpected question; they could see his lips trying to form an answer, and suddenly the questioner was embarrassed, but then Auggie just said "You have no idea," and nudged Annie to get them out of there. She did.

Little did he know their "no idea" would become completely untrue in less than sixty seconds.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:** This is a re-write of the story to make it consistant with taking place a few months after the Season 3 finale.

I own nothing. Write this for fun.

**Chapter 2 - It's On**

Annie guided Auggie around the table to where the waitress had just delivered their breakfast. Annie placed Auggie's hand on the back of his chair and when he'd gotten himself seated, succinctly cued him about his food's location by whispering in his ear.

Auggie looked really ready to eat after all the conversation. She could tell by how he picked up his fork that his mouth was watering for the first bite. So was Annie's.

About to sit down, Annie took a habitual quick look around. Over the top of the seated patrons, she caught a glimpse of something in the parking lot that caused her to continue to stand and study the lot. Two Middle Eastern men dressed in jackets much too warm for the middle 70's morning weather looked around like they wanted to see if anybody was looking at them; then they reached back in their car, pulled out what looked to Annie like black pistol grip 12 gauge pump shotguns and quickly stuck them under their jackets. They looked around again and headed directly for the restaurant entrance.

Her initial thought to herself was, "_Oh shit!_" Her eyes flicked around to confirm the status of things around her; they saw but didn't make contact with Colonel Abbott's eyes. Annie reacted immediately. Urgently, but in a low voice only he could hear, she commanded, "Auggie, text an 85X to Langley right now. Hit the floor. Stay down flat; it's going to get really loud and dangerous in here in about twenty seconds - there are two Middle Eastern tangos heading for the front door with shotguns hidden under their too warm jackets." She didn't look at him but heard and felt him immediately react to her concise but very informative statement. She turned to Colonel Abbott as she reached for the Glock 26 and shouted in her best command voice, "Colonel Abbott, there are two Tangos with shotguns in the parking lot heading for the front door; get your people down _now_." The Glock slipped free of the holster where it had been feeling like a rock in her kidney for several days. But, right at that moment, she was so glad to have it she wouldn't care if it had kicked her every step she took. Her body went into fight mode; she felt the first jolt of adrenaline kick in as her vision started to narrow to just the front door where they would make their entrance. She'd felt this before, knew what was coming, nurtured the feeling as it washed her into what she'd come to call her adrenaline rage.

Somebody would die in the next few seconds.

She had reacted instantly to repulse the attack. She felt herself transition into battle mode. She felt the adrenaline that dumped into her blood stream and fueled her body for a fight to the death. She knew how to use this rage, how it turned her into a weapon. She was on auto pilot now: eyes wide open and unblinking, committed to what was to come like a missile with mission lock on. Self didn't exist for her anymore. Ten seconds after she first saw the terrorists start their sprint for the front door she was in a full adrenaline rage, had accepted the inevitability of whatever was to come. Her life collapsed to the single objective: stop them. No other constraints, no mercy, no rules, take them down, stop them. Both of them. She felt like time had almost stopped. They approached the first door; moved in what appeared to Annie as slow motion. Then, it was "on."

Still standing, she saw the two guys burst through the first set of doors. The force of their entrance slammed the doors back to the walls almost in slow motion. Then she heard them scream, "Allah Akbar!'

Annie saw the doors through the window into the entryway as they recoiled from over extension into the walls. She saw the shotguns come out from under their jackets - one of the patrons in the entry way, with commendable reactions, tried in vain to grab them, and, as Annie watched through the window, he was shot in the face at very close range. His head exploded from the close range load of twelve gage buckshot that made a bloody mess of the entryway. Annie didn't react beyond starting a mental round count. She was already in full battle mode; the image would haunt her dreams for months, but at the moment, it had no effect on her at all.

At that point, for Annie there was nothing on the planet but them and her totally focused rage. Time had slowed to a crawl for her. She had become a deadly fighting machine. Her own movements seemed so slow to her as she recognized their goal, assessed the situation in a heartbeat, saw her best course of action, and instinctively knelt, so she faced their most likely avenue of the first attack. She felt her right knee hit the floor, but there was no pain. She knew intuitively the only target worth this sort of attack was the long row of colonels behind her. She used the moment to check her man's location with a flick of her eyes and saw Auggie on the floor with his phone to his ear, but she couldn't hear anything he might be saying. The moment passed. She extended the Glock out into her line of sight in a two handed grip ready to intercept an attack on them that had to come first through the entry way 25 feet in front of her.

The restaurant patrons, other than the colonels, had frozen in their seats when the crazy blonde stood up, brandished a pistol and shouted about tangos. The sound of the first shotgun blast ended that, and after a moment's dead silence, they started to react en-mass to get to cover in one way or another.

Colonel Abbott struggled to get his own gun out after she shouted her warning, but it was hung up in his clothes. When he saw how Annie reacted, saw her mission face, saw how her eyes moved to gather status from all the right places; he concentrated on getting as low as he could to be sure he wasn't in her way. He knew the exact moment she had figured out how the attack would unfold – there had been the barest flicker in her eyes before she dropped to one knee, extended her pistol toward the clear aisle across which the assailant would have to pass. Then he had hit the floor himself but turned his head so he kept her in sight and had a full view of the fight. He would be the only real witness to all of what happened next. As soon as the terrorists were through the second set of doors into the main room of the restaurant, they screamed 'Allah Akbar!' again and other phrases in Farsi. Each fired a shot from his shotgun into the main dining area, racked out the empty. Then they split up; one sprinted for the archway at the back; the other headed directly to his left toward the archway near Annie's table. His pistol grip shotgun bobbed up in front of his face as he tried hopelessly to control where it pointed while he ran - it had no stock or sling to stabilize it. Bad for him, good for Annie.

Annie, still on one knee by her table, rested her shoulder lightly against the table to steady her aim. The terrorist ran through the archway. She saw him struggle unsuccessfully to point his wildly gyrating shotgun toward the colonels. He fired a shot almost directly over her head in the colonels' direction accompanied by the sound of breaking glass as his unintentionally high shot took out one of the big plate glass windows along the side of the restaurant. He continued through the archway occupied with trying to rack in a new shell. He apparently failed to see Annie where she waited to ambush him. As he cleared the patrons at the table between Annie and the archway, he still hadn't successfully racked the slide on his shotgun which dropped it down and gave Annie the opening she needed. She fired four times as her front sight came on target, two double taps in less than a second. The first to his torso, the second to his head just in case he was wearing body armor.

She registered the effect of her shots in slow motion. Blood and brain matter sprayed in both directions from the head wounds, but nothing sprayed back from the torso hits though they should have had some effect. His lifeless hands let go of the shotgun as his momentum carried him forward and down. Before he hit the floor, Annie's combat reflexes had registered the hits, their effect or lack of it, as cold fact to be applied to the next target. She snapped her forearms vertical as his face hit the floor; her gun pointed up through force of habit. She spun around to engage the second one who was about to turn through the rear archway apparently unaware of what happened to his partner.

Annie's world moved in slow motion. Her turn seemed to go on forever. She caught a glimpse of Fred on the floor staring at her. Then he was gone: out of her vision, out of her consciousness. She was fixed on the second terrorist now with her gun extended in firing position. Her tight cone of vision just allowed her to see the shotgun that bobbed in front of his face as the assailant ran through the archway. The people at the table by the archway were frozen in their chairs. She registered the table full of patrons at the end of the aisle directly in her line of fire and corrected her aim up to where his head should be. She hoped they wouldn't get hit, but knew she would shoot anyway. Then he was in the aisle way between the tables. He looked toward the colonels as he fired his first shot, which was, like his partner's, way high. She would learn later that it caused the window at the side of the restaurant to burst and spray glass all over the place. Unaware of the glass, since it was not in her cone of vision and her hearing had almost shut down, she fired fast double taps at the base of his nose on the leading side of his bobbing head. She figured, based on the response to her body hits on the other one, he might have body armor, and his head was above the patrons still seated behind him. She hoped that misses wouldn't hit them but pressed the trigger anyway.

Two hit his head and blew blood and brain matter all over the unfortunate patrons behind him and back splattered in the aisle in front of Annie. One of the other two hit his shotgun, knocked it loose from his now lifeless hands, while the 4th missed slightly high and buried itself in the wall behind him, well above the heads of the seated patrons. Already dead, his body fell forward - the shotgun flew through the air to hit a patron in the face barrel first leaving her with a nasty gash but alive. His body skidded to a stop with lifeless eyes, his personal jihad stopped in mid scream. (Later examination revealed one shot had gone in half way between his temple and his ears about mid brain; the second had completely destroyed the lower back part of his brain, the medulla, instantly interrupting all vital body functions. Annie would claim it was a lucky shot. Others, seeing four rapid fire head hits on running targets, would want to dispute it as way better than luck, but she wouldn't give in.)

Still in a hyper state she whipped her head quickly right, left, and behind her; the gun followed her scan ready to take out additional targets. Someone moved toward the dropped shotgun, and she shouted, "Leave it alone!"

Her tone caused him and everybody else with the same idea to freeze in their tracks, with a desire to back off from the unleashed fury and violence of her counter attack. Instinctively she reached for her purse, grabbed the fresh clip she had stored there, flicked a glance to verify it was full, ejected the one with only two rounds left, inserted and palm slapped the new one into place. Reloaded, she slowly rose up; head on a swivel her body turned 360 degrees as she scanned with total focus for more threats. There weren't any.

She looked down, confirmed Auggie was okay, and now heard him on the phone with Langley. She knew it was Langley, but the words didn't register. As her vision began to return to normal, she realized she needed help. There were too many people, too much confusion - she flicked her head toward the parking lot, looked at Colonel Abbott who had started to get up and said hoarsely, "Colonel Abbott, please take command before this gets any more out of control."

**###**

The colonel knew exactly what needed to be done, and he didn't hesitate; he was on his feet almost instantly and gave fast precise orders to the others at his table because he knew they would understand them. Then he moved rapidly to the front of the restaurant and managed to get everybody's attention as the one person who seemed to know what to do. And he did.

Colonel Abbott pointed to a man close to him with a cell phone and said, "You, please call 911 then give me the phone. The rest of you please stay off the phone."

Then Annie resumed her scan. She looked out the windows and finally saw wrecked glass where the bad guy's shots had gone. _Thank God they hadn't been trained by Frank_, she thought as the effects of the adrenaline began to wear off. Her hands started to shake badly – Auggie, who had just gotten up to stand by her, felt her start to tremble and suggested she holster her pistol. When her hands couldn't do it, aware of her hyper state, he said, "I'm going to touch you," waited till she acknowledged him by saying, "okay," then carefully placed his hands on her and said, "Let me do this," waited for her to acknowledge him again, and cautiously put it back in her holster.

Auggie said Colonel Abbott needed to do something to intercept the cops at the front door, but Annie told him that the colonel already had three of his group out there waiting. Just then his phone rang; the audible caller ID said "Joan". He answered.

Joan was calm but urgent when she asked with no preamble, "Auggie, what is going on?"

"The restaurant was attacked by two Farsi speaking men with shotguns. Annie shot them, and I believe killed them."

Joan asked, "Annie shot them?"

Auggie said, "Yes, she was the only one who fired any shots at them that I know of."

"Is she undamaged?"

"Yes, she made no noises like she was hit."

"Any other casualties?"

"I'm not sure."

She asked, "What's your plan?"

Auggie replied, "Standard NOC cover stories but I'm worried about publicity for two reasons: our covert status and follow up strikes on us by the rest of the cell or other cells if our pictures get out."

Joan said, "I've arranged to go with the FBI on a helicopter out of Quantico. We should be there in an hour or a bit more. Also have an FBI agent on the way from Philly."

Annie looked at Auggie and asked, "May I speak to her, please?"

He handed her the phone.

Annie asked, "Joan?" in a shaky voice.

Joan replied, "Yes," speaking as calmly as she could.

Annie said, "They shouted 'Allah Akbar' when they came through the door. They yelled jihad slogans in Farsi as they attacked. They appear to be Middle Eastern, but their accent was … was just … wrong. I'll get some pictures of them to Auggie's guys before the FBI or other first responders get here. I saw them kill a restaurant patron in the front entry way to the restaurant. I think I killed the two of them before they could kill anybody else, but there were shots in the main dining room before they got to a location where I could take them out. They were armed with pistol grip stockless pump shotguns. Looked like Mossberg 500 Persuaders or Remington 870's to me, but I'm not an expert on shotguns."

Joan asked, "What is your condition?"

Annie replied, "No physical damage, coming down from a full on adrenaline rage, probably going to have to vomit soon. Auggie is undamaged. Auggie and I both knew one of the colonels, Fred Abbott-"

Joan interrupted her to say, "Five foot eight, silver hair, trim, intelligent, reading glasses, take charge kind of guy?"

Annie was amazed and asked. "How did you know?"

Joan said, "That's need to know, but he will know exactly what to do, and probably either knows or has figured out you both are covert officers."

Annie said, "That's good because I just asked him to take command of the situation. A restaurant full of panicked people and three dead bodies is way over my head, especially with what I'm feeling now. Joan, please don't be upset with me. There was nothing else I could do. I saw them, I just reacted; I hope I don't get in too much trouble."

Joan said, "Annie, from what the FBI guys here tell me, based on the 911 calls that are still coming in, you took down two armed and dangerous terrorists who staged a coordinated blitz surprise attack in a crowded restaurant and didn't hit anybody else. That is a damn good job by anybody's standards. You did it on a moment's notice. My God, girl, you aren't even supposed to be trained for that as far as I know. Don't worry, we got your back on this one - but we _**really**_ need to talk when you get back. Arthur has left for the DPD to take command. Let me talk to Auggie again. The chopper is ready to take me to Quantico."

Slightly dazed by the gush of information from the usually far more cryptic Joan, she handed the phone to Auggie and pulled her phone out of her purse. She put the mostly empty clip from her vest pocket into the purse after she habitually checked to confirm it had 2 more rounds in it. Somebody would likely ask how many shots she'd fired; she wanted to be sure she knew the exact answer. Then she went to get pictures of the terrorists. She managed the first one easily enough because he was so close. She had a little difficulty with the patrons she had to get past. They didn't want to touch her and jumped back when she turned her still unblinking combat mode eyes and mission face on them, so she got by them and took the second picture in spite of her trembling hands. She sent them both to Auggie's tech guys just as two sirens announced the first responders had arrived.

She turned to Auggie and asked, "How long it had been since you made the initial 85X call."

"Um … Twelve minutes."

She was surprised it had been that long and replied, "They could have done a lot of shooting in that time."

"Yes, they could have. But they didn't get the chance."

Annie saw Colonel Abbott had the patrons mostly back in their seats, one patron who, she later learned, had gotten a pellet in the arm as he ducked down was being treated by a nurse who happened to be in the restaurant for breakfast on her way to work. So was the lady with the gash in her face from the shotgun. Thankful for Colonel Abbott's presence and competence, she made her way back to Auggie and sat down. She felt the crash that she knew would happen as soon as she felt safe, and sometimes, but not always, it was pretty messy. This was right up there with the most powerful adrenaline rage she had ever experienced, and it could be pretty ugly soon. In Russia after taking down Lena, she'd run and fought, then been knocked out. In Amsterdam she'd taken off in a run for her life that included leaping off the side of the canal into a boat. The intense physical exertion had greatly reduced the after effects of those adrenaline shots. Here, there was no such exertion, and she knew it was likely to be ugly. At this moment, the nausea was already pretty bad; at least she hadn't eaten anything but one sip of coffee to throw up. It occurred to her that she was way too familiar with adrenaline rages and the aftermath.

One of the colonels who had known her dad approached cautiously. He held a wastebasket. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She said, "I'm as good as can be expected, but that might not last; the nausea has started."

He responded, "I thought that might be the case; here's the wastebasket from the hostess desk." Then, as if to cheer her up, he added, "Your Dad would be so proud of you. You aren't a chip off the old block; you are pretty much the whole damn block in a different package. I've done some Close Quarters Battle in my time, and I have to say, that was an amazing and courageous bit of gun fighting, young lady. You didn't even blink. Just took them on, all in, and made it look easy. The great ones always make it look easy. If I didn't know better I'd say you had been trained by Frank." When her head snapped in his direction he put up his hands, said, "Lucky guess," and winked.

She nodded but put her finger to her lips. He copied her gesture but said, "There are three of us here who have guessed that. We have also guessed what you are, but we are going to keep that to ourselves."

She touched his hand and mouthed, "Thank you."

He looked at Auggie, sitting there taking in the conversation with his arm around her waist and said, "Captain Anderson, your girlfriend is gorgeous, a hell of a woman, and unholy hell on wheels when she gets riled up. You ought to hang onto her, son. You won't find another like her in this life, or any other life either."

Auggie pulled her closer before he said, "I know, sir, but what you have seen is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm not about to let her go anywhere."

The colonel said, "You are one lucky man. ... Annie, if you need anything, like for us to hog tie the cops if they aren't polite, just let us know." With that he'd left to go back to Colonel Abbott to see if there was anything else he could do.

While they talked to the old colonel, the first two police cars arrived in the parking lot to be "greeted" by the three colonels that Abbott had placed there for that purpose. She learned later from debriefing reports that one of them was a former MP. They had managed the initial contact well, let the LEOs know the fight was over and calmed the policemen down. They had told them they had everything under control and had preserved the scene for their forensic people before they let them into the restaurant. They had also told them, "There are two dead assailants and one dead restaurant patron inside; you will want a medical examiner and backup to get data from all the patrons from an almost full restaurant."

Also included in the debriefing report was a statement that both officers had called in as on the scene before entering the restaurant. They had reported it appeared quiet, asked for backup to help handle the restaurant patrons, an ME and crime scene techs.

When the two officers got into the restaurant past the body in the entryway, they found, amazingly enough, a scene of relative order and calm. Very few were still eating, but some were drinking coffee. The waitresses were bringing coffee, soda and tea refills. Nobody was messing with the bodies on the floor. Almost all the patrons, except for Annie and Auggie, were in the main dining room. The assailant's shotguns were in plain sight where they skidded to a stop with nobody near them. A couple of people had tipped over some tables to screen the bodies from the rest of the restaurant.

They moved into the annex dining room passing by Annie and Auggie to look at the two dead terrorists; first the one near the front, and then the one near the rear. They talked between themselves and reacted to seeing that the dead men were shot multiple times, but each of them had been hit in the head. The extreme difficulty of successful headshots on running targets was discussed. From what they could read of the scene, the guys were at least jogging and shooting their shotguns when they were shot. They talked for a minute between themselves and remarked on the head shots at some length before they concluded between them there must have been two shooters relatively close to the attackers for that to have happened.

Then they asked if anybody knew who the two shooters were that stopped the terrorists. One of the female patrons on her way out of the annex turned to look back as she was leaving the annex and said, "It wasn't shooters, officers. It was one shooter, that little blonde lady sitting with the blind guy right over there. She saw them coming before the rest of us and, God Bless her, she shot 'em both stone dead," and pointed in Annie's direction. She added with an intense look, "Y'all be nice to her. She's a hero." At that point Colonel Abbott introduced himself and said, "Officers, please come with me. I'll introduce you to the lady that shot these guys while I watched. Please don't make any fast moves, and keep your hands away from your guns. She's still pretty hyper, and she's either in or about to have a rather severe adrenaline crash."

As they approached, Annie, sitting on Auggie's lap, heard the footsteps. Her eyes popped wide open, and she sat up straight, fully alert. Her eyes flicked quickly from Colonel Abbott to the officers and back, then made a quick pass around them in her vicinity missing nothing. When they got to Annie, she looked her question to Colonel Abbott but continued her unblinking focus on the two officers. Colonel Abbott said, "Annie, I've told these two officers you were the person that shot these two terrorists. They need to talk to you."

She fought the nausea, appraised them again with one quick glance, saw no threat, and said, "I'm Annie Walker, and I'm going to stand up. I'm not going to offer to shake your hands. Nothing personal, but right now you touching me wouldn't be a good idea."

The two officers were apparently sensitive to her condition and the look in her eyes, a look they would both later describe to their superiors as 'scary,' because they each backed up a full step to give her room and stayed relaxed.

The state trooper, apparently nominally in charge, said, "Trooper Benson here. This is Officer Fournier of the Carlisle Police Department. Ms. Walker, you aren't in any trouble. But we need for you to please tell us what happened here so we can call in a preliminary report."

Annie spoke softly, "Okay, give me a second." She paused, still on high alert, to get her thoughts organized, then said in a remarkably calm voice, "I first noticed them because they wore clothing much too warm for the morning. While I watched them I saw them take those shotguns," she pointed at the two shotguns, "out of a car in the parking lot and hide them under their jackets. When they started to sprint toward the front door, I alerted Colonel Abbott, him. I saw one of them, I don't know which one, kill someone in the entry way. When they got in here, they yelled 'Allah Akbar' and some other phrases in a foreign language. They fired one shot each out over the main part of the restaurant and then split up and ran in the direction of that long line of tables that were full of colonels." She swept her arm to point out the row of tables where the colonels had been sitting. Then added, "The first one, there," she pointed at the body closest to her, "opened fire as he came through that archway. I was kneeling there. The shot went about over my head. I don't think he saw me. I shot him 4 times when he passed that aisle. If you look at the blood spatter you can see where he was when I opened fire.

"I turned to engage the second one. I don't think that one back there knew I'd already shot this one up here because he never took evasive action. I fired 4 shots at him when he crossed that aisle. I was afraid they were going to kill us, so I acted in self-defense."

The State Trooper and Policeman's eyes opened wide for an instant and then the trooper asked, "You said you shot them in the head while they ran?" He was amazed, but Annie wasn't ready for anything that wasn't exactly what she had said.

She looked at him for a second, her expression twitched in annoyance, and then said, "I did, but I didn't say that. I said I shot the first one, that one, four times. I think if you check you will see I hit him twice in the torso before I shot him twice in the head. I went for the head because there was no blood from the torso shots, so I thought he might be wearing body armor. He is."

Benson stayed relaxed and nodded.

She continued, "I fired 4 shots at the head of the second one, that one back there. I didn't waste any shots on the torso of the second one for two reasons: I thought he would also be wearing body armor. I had to shoot high anyway because there were patrons behind him, and if I missed low, I might hit one of them. As it is I think they got pretty badly sprayed with blood and stuff from his head; but folks have helped them to clean up."

Colonel Abbott interjected, "We had to clean 'em up; couldn't ask them to sit there like that. It made them hysterical."

The trooper looked at her and shook his head. She could see from his expression the shake was not denial but amazement at what he'd just heard and confirmed when he'd looked at the bodies. He keyed his radio and said, "This is Trooper Benson, badge number 410046. The fight is over. There are two confirmed dead assailants. The attack was over before we got here. Looks like classic self defense to me. The restaurant was attacked by two shotgun wielding assailants. They were killed. The shooter who took them down is a female, Caucasian, late twenties, five-five, hundred fifteen, blonde. She saved a lot of lives. Repeat request for a paramedic, some backup for taking names and data, two teams of CSI's, and a medical examiner."

The reply was, "Roger that. You have all that and more on the way. Department of Homeland Security from Harrisburg by chopper and FBI on the way by chopper from both Philly and DC because some of the 911 calls said the perps were shouting 'Allah Akbar' and screaming in a foreign language. The working theory right now is that this is a terrorist attack. We also heard from other sources the defensive shooter was a blonde woman, late twenties, 5'-5", athletic build, named Annie Walker, is that right?"

The trooper looked at Annie who had sat back down on Auggie's lap and said, "Yes, Annie Walker. She is sitting right in front of me."

The radio reply was, "Apparently she is special in some way. Our instructions from the FBI _and_ DHS are that she is to be treated with courtesy, not restrained in any way, given whatever she needs; no photographs are to be taken of her, or her companion August Anderson, by anybody. Repeat, no pictures of her or her companion. Keep all patrons and employees in the restaurant till the FBI get there. Over."

"Roger that, no pictures of the woman or her companion, nobody leaves, Over." he said.

HQ continued, "There is concern their might be reprisals against her or her companion if their pictures get out. We have been ordered to return her weapon to her before she leaves so have the CSI folks do whatever they need to right there on scene. Do not let her weapon leave the building."

The trooper looked at Annie with growing respect and said, "The gun doesn't leave the building. She gets it back. No problem, will comply."

He signed off and then turned back to Annie, "You are definitely special in some way, never mind how they asked us to treat you. You can really hit a running man in the head at that distance?"

Annie just looked up at him and didn't have to wait long for him to figure it out. He finally said, "Yeah. Duh! Sorry, dumb question, you already proved you can. Lady, you are one hell of a shot. Colonel Abbott, did you see it? Is that what happened?"

The colonel replied, "I saw it all from about fifteen feet away. I was on the floor by that table right there. What I saw is exactly what she told you. They came in shouting slogans in Farsi, I think, ran by the end of the aisle where she had gotten into position and ready for them. She knelt by that table. She shot them; they were dead before they hit the floor."

Annie figured the head shots were going to make the Smithsonian cover harder to sell so she set to work selling it. She looked at the trooper and said, "I work in acquisitions for the Smithsonian Art Museum in DC. I have to travel to some rather inhospitable places in the world, so I'm a self defense buff. I am into martial arts, and yoga for exercise. I shoot in IDPA and IPSC competitions when I can, and practice when I can't. My dad was military; he knew some of these War College instructors including Colonel Abbott here. He taught me to fight with a handgun before I could drive a car."

It finally dawned on the trooper and the policeman at about the same time that she must still have her gun, and they started to get nervous. She saw the reaction and said, "Yes, I still have the gun on me. You will need it for evidence; do you know how to handle a Glock 26?"

The Carlisle Patrolman said, "I do. My duty piece is a Glock 17, and I own a Glock 26 as my personal off duty gun."

She said, "Okay, just stand there till I explain how I want to do this. It's in an IWB holster at my five o'clock under this vest. I'll put my hands on my head, slowly stand up, turn my back to you, and then you may, carefully, using a napkin to keep your prints off it, take the gun. Please be careful where you point it. Also, please be advised my boyfriend's prints will be on it in addition to mine. My hands were shaking too much from the adrenaline to get it back in the holster, so he re-holstered it for me. I have the magazine that was in the gun when I shot them in my purse if you need that. I reloaded immediately out of habit. My spare is in it now. You should know I need the gun back before I leave, so have your CSI people do whatever they need to before then – I don't want that pistol to leave the building. And I'd like a receipt of some sort signed by you with the serial number on it."

The trooper said, "No problem from us. You heard dispatch. You will get it back real soon based on what they said. Your way sounds good to me. Ready?"

Annie said, "Ready," put her hands on her head, stood up, turned, and it all went perfectly. The trooper looked like he was going to clear the pistol when she said, "I'd leave that for the CSI's to do."

He said, "Of course. We don't get situations like this very often, like never before in Carlisle as far as I know. We have normal crime but nothing like this. I wonder where these guys came from?"

Annie refused to be distracted and said, "Now, please, jot the receipt on something, sign it, and give it to me - double check the serial number, it's on that little metal tag embedded under the front of the frame." He wrote the receipt, Annie verified the serial number.

The local policeman nodded as they began to hear a crescendo of sirens for arriving law enforcement and, apparently, every ambulance in the county.

The trooper said, "Ms. Walker, it's been our pleasure, but I better go outside to meet them before this gets out of hand," finishing at the same moment a medevac helicopter landed in the field across from the parking lot.

As he walked off Annie said, "I need to get to a restroom right now – I'd rather not use this wastebasket."

She saw one of the colonels that were at the table and waved him down. He altered course to come right over to her and said, "What'cha need Annie?"

"I need to get to a restroom right now."

"I'll accompany you and bring you back to Auggie."


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:** This is a re-write of the story to make it consistant with taking place a few months after the Season 3 finale.

I own nothing. Write this for fun.

**Chapter 3 - What Now?**

Annie felt somewhat better when she headed back toward the door out of the restroom thankful she hadn't eaten breakfast yet. Her mind raced ahead as she reached for the door. _What sort of a mess have I gotten myself into this time?_ _All I wanted was breakfast, a pleasant drive home, and another evening with my wonderful Auggie before we have to head back into the DPD tomorrow. Now our covers are at risk; there is no way we are going to make it back there today, and this is going to take hours to clear up so we can leave. They are going to want to talk to me last so they have the others accounts to hold against me if there are differences between their stories and mine, and God knows, witnesses usually suck. I know I saw Uncle Fred looking in my direction as I turned to engage the second guy, I wonder if he saw all of it? If so, he'd be a wonderful witness._ Then she smiled a bit to herself as she remembered how this all started as a plan to get Auggie in the same bed in a motel room in Carlisle and ravish him for two solid days. _Well, it worked, _she remembered, _he agreed to the trip, kissed me to seal the deal, and we ended up in his bed about 5 minutes later. God, that was incredible!_

Her reverie was interrupted by the howl of sirens that sounded like they turned into the parking lot. She stepped out of the restroom and met the colonel who had waited for her. As much as possible, he used his still broad shoulders to shelter her from the restaurant patrons as he escorted her back to Auggie.

Most of the other patrons had been moved out of the annex to keep Auggie and Annie isolated from too intense scrutiny. The few left were more than ready to leave, the bodies bleeding out on the floor where a great motivator. Annie and Auggie were stuck with their fallen foe almost at their feet – after all, she had shot them.

The second thoughts hadn't hit her yet, but she knew they would sooner or later. She could feel the empty holster at her five o'clock and hoped they didn't misplace her gun. She was uncomfortable without it now and knew she would feel positively naked without it on the way home after this happened. She thought, _if our picture doesn't get into the paper or on TV, we should be OK. I'll probably be stuck on desk duty for a while, but it should blow over unless there are complications. Speaking of which,_ she suddenly realized, _t__heir accent was almost like they had been taught to speak Farsi with an American accent ... and it hit her as the dots connected; these were home grown terrorists, U. S. Citizens that had been converted to Islamist fanatics. Crap. I need to tell Joan about this ASAP. _

With that thought she suddenly picked up her pace heading back to Auggie. She wanted to share the news with him, but when she arrived, he was still sitting with Uncle Fred. _Ok,_ she thought, _Colonel Abbott might be a better label for him in this situation, but I have to get Auggie free for a quick talk and a call to Joan before we were are locked down by the tsunami of officialdom that was descending on them with lights and sirens. _"Colonel," she said to the man who had escorted her, "and, Colonel Abbott, could you give Auggie and me a couple of minutes alone before those folks get here?"

They could, and did. When they were out of ear shot, she turned to Auggie and said, "I finally figured out what was so strange about how they spoke Farsi. They speak it with an American accent! These guys are probably home grown, and may well be US citizens. If I had heard them speak English, I could probably tell you where they are from, but right now, all I can say is that I'm 90 percent sure they are American from some place north of the Mason Dixon line. There was no trace of drawl in their speech at all," she finished.

Auggie's head tipped forward as he concentrated on Annie's perception of the terrorists. He took a moment to play back what he had heard the terrorists shout, but he only had a soldier's rough grasp of Farsi and lacked Annie's fine tuned ear. He nodded to himself, said, "You are probably right." Then he picked up his phone and called Joan. It went to voice mail, apparently they had to turn them off in the chopper, or they were here almost on the ground. He left a brief message saying "Annie thinks these two are home grown terrorists from someplace in the US north of the Mason Dixon line."

He got a call back from Joan about twenty minutes later.

When he pressed the answer button on his phone Joan said, "Annie's right, Stu just matched their pictures with two guys from a group of people near Minneapolis. They were missing from the country for about two years and recently showed up back in Minnesota. There is some chatter that they spent the time at training camps in Syria and Somalia." She paused for a second then added, "I don't want you or Annie to go after them. Rossabi has called it in. The FBI has this covered; the bodies will be evidence enough for them to get all the warrants they need if the pictures don't do it. There aren't any complications here; they staged the attack on their own."

Then, switching subjects she asked, "How is Annie doing?"

Auggie replied, "Just fine now. She's been to the woman's room, just got back and told me her conclusions. So we have this from two different-"

Joan broke in, "Gotta go, Rossabi wants me on a conference call with the US Attorney." The call ended right then.

Annie had listened, gave his arm a squeeze, cocked her head and said, "Sounds like we have more company. God, I'd love to take that chopper to DC right about now." Annie stood up to get a better look. Sure enough, there was the unmistakable sound of a chopper descending - they could feel the pulsations in the air through the missing windows. As was second nature to her now Annie narrated what she was seeing for Auggie, "I hear more than one. I see the first one; it's a State Police chopper – probably the one from Harrisburg. I also see three more Police cars. They look like local PD, a civilian car, and ... yes, there is the second chopper. It has FBI insignia on it, might be the one coming from Philly. It landed not too far from the first. The blades on the first one are coasting down, I think it's staying. We have two suits and a State Trooper, senior officer I think based on the uniform and scrambled eggs on his hat, getting out of the first one. They are headed for the woman getting out of the second one. I see Colonel Abbott in the parking lot near the entrance. I'm pretty sure the woman is FBI, not sure about the two suits from the State Police chopper."

"DHS perhaps?" Auggie asked.

Annie considered for a moment and said, "That's a distinct possibility." After considering them for a few moments she said, "They don't look or move like field personnel."

She continued her narration, "They are having a meeting out on the edge of the parking lot. The woman is staying calm, the others are gesturing." Then she started to chuckle and said, "You go, girl."

"What?" Auggie asked.

"The woman from the FBI chopper is leading them to the restaurant. From the way she is walking, I'm pretty sure she's going to be in command of the scene. Unless she's a social climber country girl makes good from West Loading Ramp, Nebraska, that's going to be good for us."

The group approached Colonel Abbott apparently having heard he was more or less in charge of the scene. From Annie's point of view everything looked cordial. The woman and the colonel shook hands first, and then the other three joined in. There was a period while it looked to Annie like the colonel brought them up to speed as pretty much only he could. He'd seen the whole scenario play out right in front of him and had the military command background to tell the story very concisely, leaving nothing important out. Periodically during the colonel's tale, one or all of his audience would look toward the restaurant, back at him, and then at the restaurant again. By the time he finished it looked like they were anxious to get inside. He and the woman talked for a moment; she moved back in front of the helicopter contingent and led them all toward the restaurant.

During all this the new arrivals in the police cars stopped to watch the suits from the choppers talk. They apparently thought the outcome might have an effect on them. A civilian got out of the car, went to the trunk, removed a bag, which Annie speculated might indicate he was the Medical Examiner.

As the group lead by the colonel got close to the restaurant, they all stopped to meet with the bag carrying man. He shook hands with the woman, nodded to the others, and apparently got permission to head on into the restaurant which pretty much confirmed Annie's suspicion that he was the ME. She figured he'd stop to do a very quick assessment of the body in the entryway, then come back to look at the terrorists bodies. _Yes,_ she thought, _they are definitely terrorists. They were trying to kill us. So why does it hit me in the pit of my stomach to see them lying there? _

She had asked this same question after Stockholm and again through tears after Tokyo, and about every minute after Lena, but there was no good answer other than she had a conscience. She had hunted down and killed Lena like an avenging angel, but she hated having to do it. She had nightmares, sometimes, where she failed to kill the four assailants she'd already faced, complete with nightmares of the time Lena shot her twice in the chest and killed Simon. She knew these two were going to add to that. She didn't have PTSD in the sense of being incapacitated by fear, or hyper alertness, or ducking whenever she heard a loud noise, but there were sometimes several nights in a row where she woke up dripping wet and gasping, frequently crying, but never, so far, screaming or doing anything loud enough to wake someone on the other side of a wall - so she was cleared for the field. She apologized to Auggie every time it happened with her in his bed, but he just soothed her, had her shower while he changed the sheets and pillow cases and gently held her so she'd get back to sleep.

The sudden change from the suits to thinking about Auggie made her feel warm. She sat back down in his lap, moved to put her arm around his waist and lean against him for a few seconds to charge her emotional batteries. She got an answering squeeze.

Then Auggie said, "I think they are coming."

Annie heard them too but, with the high alert level pretty much worn off, didn't lift her head off his shoulder till the last second. They weren't talking when they came through the archway nearest the door. Annie thought,_ Okay, show time,_ and sat up to look in their direction.

The woman leading the contingent was dressed in a suit with a jacket Annie figured concealed her gun. She noted to herself she was noticing such things. The woman had a small purse which she changed to her left hand as she approached the archway. Annie knew she was right-handed at that moment. That said, Annie didn't detect any sense of threat from her. Her walk suggested self-confidence but not arrogance. Annie had the feeling she was going to be an ally as soon as she heard the story.

Annie had studied the woman as she made her way into the restaurant through the front door after seeing the body in the entry way. She didn't look shaken, but she did look appropriately sobered by the sight of an innocent civilian brutally murdered in cold blood and maybe somewhat angry about it too.

With her so close she had another chance to get a first impression. Annie saw an attractive brown- haired woman who obviously took care of herself. She was dressed to be both what Annie would call business feminine and completely professional. She had a pleasant face, very little makeup and no evidence of insecurity with herself or her position. Annie estimated she and the woman could probably wear the same size clothes, that the woman that the woman had maybe ten years on her, but she still walked with a spring in her step without being bouncy.

As the group got even closer the woman's expression was both thoughtful and curious. Annie got the definite impression she had been "read in" and knew she was about to meet her first spies. The woman walked up to them and said, "Mr. Anderson, Ms. Walker, I'm Supervisory Special Agent Megan Burk from the Philadelphia office. I've coordinated with SSA Rossabi, who I understand at least you, Ms. Walker, have met before, and I'll be in charge of the investigation and the scene."

Auggie offered his hand when he thought it would be appropriate to avoid awkwardness. She shook it and then took the hand Annie offered.

"I'll let these other gentlemen introduce themselves," she said stepping slightly aside indicating the three men behind her.

The first, a trim, immaculately groomed gentleman of medium height and average build, who Annie had guessed was the senior of those remaining, announced himself in a pleasant voice as "Agent Glen Billings from the Department of Homeland Security, Harrisburg office, pleased to meet you." As he finished, he offered his hand to Annie. Annie shook it; Auggie offered his hand which the DHS agent also shook.

Agent Billings clearly already knew Auggie was blind. This led Annie Annie to think he had been briefed to some degree, but from the uncertainty in his gaze, she didn't get the feeling he had been completely read in.

The second man introduced himself as Jim Gunderson, DHS public relations and media, from the Harrisburg office.

The third, a handsome obviously fit older man in what looked like some sort of formal military officer style uniform, introduced himself in a pleasant voice as, "Lieutenant Colonel Greg Watt, Deputy Commissioner of Operations for the Pennsylvania State Police. I'll take care of coordinating whatever happens related to this incident with other agencies."

After all this was done, SSA Burk said, "If you and Mr. Anderson would wait here, we'll take a quick look at the bodies, find out what the ME has to say as an initial impression, then see if we can get set up to process these people out of here to get on with what's left of their day. We are going to want to talk with both of you, but this other stuff needs to get started first." Then, after a moment's thought, she added, "Uh, gentlemen, may I have a word alone with Mr. Anderson and Ms. Walker?"

The others, of course, nodded their assent and moved away in the direction of the bodies. When they were out of hearing, given the ambient noise level from the other room, she thought for a second then said, "I've been read in by Joan Campbell. The others haven't. I know who and what you are, Ms. Walker, and a little about you as well, Mr. Anderson, but most importantly I know you are both Covert Officers for the CIA. The others only know your cover story. I know your real status needs to be protected. I want to reassure you I will do my very best to make sure that happens. And if that wasn't enough, Ms. Walker, what I've been told by Colonel Abbott, who witnessed what happened up close and personal, has me more than a little in awe of your courage and ability to handle yourself under fire. Ms. Campbell seriously understated your capabilities. I can see why she is so insistent on safeguarding your covert status. The others have only been told that Mr. Anderson has a classified job in IT at the Pentagon, that you are both in fear of retaliation if there are more terrorists out there, and that Ms. Walker is a skilled self-defense buff."

Annie moved a little as an acknowledgment they had heard what she said but didn't confirm or deny anything. Neither did Auggie. Annie could see, from her expression, SSA Burk had noted that. It was confirmed when she said, "I know you need to speak to Ms. Campbell before you confirm or deny anything, but for now, please know we are going to make every effort to keep your name and picture out of the paper. The published reason will be your stated request to remain completely anonymous for fear of retaliation by what might be left of the terrorist cell these people belonged to. There were people who saw you here; they will probably give a description to the media. Those tend to be unreliable, varied and unsuitable for identification. We can nourish that confusion a bit if we need to. Without official confirmation or denial, you should be okay."

Annie nodded and then SSA Burk continued, "Mr. Anderson, you weren't visible to the rest of the patrons; although I understand it was you who were on the phone during the event. The sounds of some of the shots are on the recording of your call as are what we think are the terrorists shouts. We are confident we will have no trouble keeping you out of the media as well."

Auggie nodded and said, "Thank you."

SSA Burk looked back at Annie, "SSA Rossabi is on his way here; Mrs. Campbell is with him. I understand their helicopter has landed at the Carlisle airport, and they are about ten or fifteen minutes away. Okay." She turned in the direction of the group and added, "I see the ME has had a couple of minutes with each body. I need to go hear what he has to say, get the patron processing going, and take some statements. I'm going to come back to you folks for your statements near the end so you can get out of here with fewer people as potential witnesses. You might want to make arrangements to stay the night in Carlisle, because I don't think you will be able to get free until sometime mid-afternoon or later."

Annie said quietly, "Thanks, Agent Burk. Would it be okay if we got something to eat? I'm not feeling very good; neither of us has eaten since mid-afternoon yesterday. I haven't even had coffee yet."

SSA Burk reacted immediately calling out to Lt. Colonel Watt just loud enough for him to hear, "Colonel Watt, a word?" When he came over, she asked, "Would you please get one of your troopers to get some food for Ms. Walker and Mr. Anderson? Whatever they think they can eat right now?"

He replied, "Sure," with a smile.

As Colonel Watt turned Annie asked, "How about Trooper Benson? He has already met us; might as well keep it all in the family."

The colonel smiled, said, "Works for me." He got Trooper Benson's attention and waved him over.

When Trooper Benson arrived in front of Colonel Watt, he looked like a man who had never met any of the command staff before and wasn't sure he was happy to start now. He stopped, said nothing, and looked at the Colonel expectantly. Colonel Watt requested that he do what he had to do to get some food and beverages for Auggie and Annie, and to please stay with them in case they needed anything, like an escort to restrooms and so forth. Looking relieved Benson said, "Yes sir. I can do that."

Since SSA Burk was apparently done with them for the moment, the colonel rejoined the group by the body of the first terrorist.

Annie turned to Trooper Benson and said, "Trooper Benson, if the kitchen staff is willing, I'd like two eggs scrambled, nothing added, a biscuit, some mixed fruit jelly, and a mug of black coffee." Turning in his direction she asked, "Auggie, how about you?"

He said, "Three eggs scrambled, toast, grape jelly, two pieces of bacon, black coffee. Coffee first, please."

Benson had his little notebook out, read the order back to them and said, "I've got this folks. If anybody deserves some food it's you two." Then with a bit of a smile and a twinkle in his eye he said, "Ms. Walker, I'll bring some coffee right away. I'll tell them it's an emergency. You seem to take it pretty seriously when someone gets between you and your coffee."

"I definitely do."

The three of them got a bit of a chuckle out of that which helped relive the tension. Then Benson headed through the back archway toward the kitchen. When he returned a few minutes later he had coffee and the message that it wouldn't be very long.

Annie asked, "Would you be willing to bring it to us yourself? I hate to ask, but we'd like to keep as low a profile as we can just in case there are more where these two came from that want to get even. If you would be sure to bring the check with it, I'll give you some money to pay them for the food."

The trooper smiled and said, "Absolutely. I'd be honored to do that for you two."

Getting back on task, Annie looked toward where the ME was giving a preliminary report to the Agents based on what appeared to be a more thorough than usual look at the bodies. She couldn't really hear what was being said but could see them following the ME's explanation with unwavering attention. At some point they simultaneously looked in Annie's direction, then back at him. He gestured, walked over to recreate the path the first assailant had taken. They all looked again at Annie, then back at him and nodded.

_They are trying to get their minds around my doing this,_ Annie thought to herself as Auggie waited quietly beside her. _Why do they always underestimate me?_ she asked herself. Then smiled a bit when she thought about all the times she had turned that tendency to her advantage.

As she continued to watch, she thought maybe Auggie's highly trained hearing had caught some of their conversation over the ambient noise by the way he looked down and concentrated, but she didn't say anything.

Right about then Annie saw more cars arriving at the restaurant. When they stopped near the door so that the occupants would be protected from the gathering crowd along the road, the door on the restaurant side of the car opened. Joan stepped out and walked directly to the restaurant where Colonel Abbott opened the door for her.

Lip reading at a distance, it looked to Annie like Joan said a casual, but somehow familiar, "Thanks," and kept going. Aside from the fact that their interaction was too casual, something undetectable to someone who didn't know them, Annie saw they didn't really indicate they knew each other and mentioned that to Auggie in a low voice. Auggie nodded his understanding.

SSA Vincent Rossabi, with his phone to his ear and obviously talking rapidly, wasn't far behind Joan. He was focused mostly on his conversation and only gave a small, polite nod to Colonel Abbot as he entered. The colonel followed them both into the entryway where they stopped for a few seconds to take in the scene there before proceeding through the doors into the main dining room. Colonel Abbot pointed out where Annie and Auggie were, and he and Joan Campbell headed in their direction along the route through the front archway.

Vincent Rossabi joined the group that was just finishing up at the first body. Annie lost track of what was going on there as Joan approached looking, maybe, a little sympathetic? At least Annie hoped she wasn't pissed. Glacial death glare Joan wasn't anything she wanted to face at the moment. _As if I had a choice,_ she added to herself. Annie noticed Colonel Abbott changed direction to join Rossabi at the first body giving them some privacy.

When Joan stopped close enough that they could talk without being overheard she looked closely at Annie and asked, "How are you doing?"

Annie replied, "Okay for now. We've asked for a little breakfast and finally have some coffee. I think I can eat something now, and if I can't Auggie is probably hungry enough to eat it all. Joan, I had no choice-"

Joan interrupted her, "Annie, we're good, okay? Seriously, the reports I'm getting say you did an impressive job of taking down two dangerous terrorists hell bent on killing a significant part of the War College teaching staff. There is no doubt in anybody's mind; you saved a lot of lives today. The FBI has requested warrants and is deploying an element of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team to the suspected location of the group these two came from. They are, as you suspected, native-born Americans gone rogue. They'd converted to radical Islam, left the country for training and indoctrination, returned, and gone off the radar before they could be picked up. The first they surfaced was here, this morning. You were here. Good for us, bad for them. I really like the bad for them part by the way.

"Now, seriously, how are you doing? I'll be honest with you; your body count is higher than most agents who've been in the field for twenty years, and it's the highest in the DPD of anybody who hasn't done time in black ops. That has to be hard on you."

Annie swallowed hard, shifted closer to Auggie and squeezed his hands so her knuckles were white. After a few seconds she said, "Joan, I've no intellectual problem with any of the times I've had to kill someone. The guy in Stockholm was an assassin for hire trying to kill my sister and me, had taken shots at her and missed before I got my chance and took him out. The two Korean Mafia guys killed my contact and were trying to kill me when I got one of their guns and barely killed them first - I'm really lucky I survived that. Lena killed Simon, shot me, left me for dead, tried to choke me to death in the hospital, was spilling her guts to Russian intelligence, went for her gun to shoot me again, and I had no compunction at all about killing her – I'd do it again in a heartbeat. All of it.

"These two came through that door firing shotguns, killed an innocent civilian by the door. They blew that poor, innocent man's face right off. They yelled Allah Akbar, jihad slogans of some sort in Farsi as they attacked. They had the misfortune that I was in condition yellow, saw them in the parking lot while they made preparations and then headed for the restaurant. It gave me time to prepare. More time than I've ever had before. I had time to alert Colonel Abbott they were coming, Auggie to call it in, figure out what to do, and time to get set to ambush them. As it was, they played right into my hands, and I got in some good shots. It could have been a lot worse if I'd been wrong about their intended target or I'd missed in the wrong direction. As it was, my choice of table coincidentally set it up so they both had to cross my field of fire on the way to their target. I was in the only place in the restaurant that gave me a chance. Plus, I had surprise on my side. I'm sure they never saw me. If they had, and knew what they were doing, I wouldn't have stood a chance against those shotguns." She paused as Joan waited, then she said as if looking for some sort of understanding, "Joan, I don't go looking for trouble; it just seems to know right where I am all the time."

Joan took it all in and said, "It does. No worries, Annie. We'll get this all organized and you out of here in the next couple of hours with your cover intact. Where is your gun? Which one did you have?"

"Box stock Glock 26. Trooper Benson took it so the CSI people could do what they needed to and then give it back. I made them sign a receipt for it."

"Good. You shoot that one really well from what I've seen. Better than that, maybe better than anyone I know. I should make sure some are in country for you when you go out?"

"We should talk about that. So far I just use what I pickup or take from somebody, and it has worked just fine."

"Okay. Has anybody asked for a statement?"

"Trooper Benson asked what happened. I gave him and the Carlisle Patrolman, Fournier I think, a simple factual description. I didn't see him take notes; don't know if he has a recorder. It was the truth, but he hadn't read me my rights yet, either, if it matters. I assume I was acting as a civilian and that we are playing by DOJ rules."

Joan said, "You are covered. The agreement I negotiated with the FBI on the way here is that if this is an open and shut case of self-defense, and if anything ever was, this is _definitely_ it, you give them a simple factual statement of what happened, and we get you out of here with your gun and your name unknown to the press or media. The Federal Prosecutor in this jurisdiction has given his seal of approval."

"Wow, you've been really busy. Thanks. Really good to know you have our back."

"Rossabi helped; believe it or not. For once he didn't act like a bureaucratic jackass."

"I owe him one."

"Maybe. I think he still owes you, but I may not be fully informed. In any event it will be another hour or two. We'll take you through the back door into one of our cars. If you give me the keys, I'll get your car and meet you where you are staying the night."

"That sounds great. You will need an introduction to the alarm system; it's about as friendly as a mugger in a dark alley. The car is Auggie's '67 'Vette Roadster. You will love it. Four hundred and thirty five horsepower, four speed stick, I've done bootlegger reverses in it at over 60 mph ... uh ... forget I said that Auggie, that was on the old tires. Moving right along, it's about in the middle of the lot with the top down and a trunk packed with two other guns and some ammo in a little safe, couple of holsters, and what little luggage we could fit in there."

"Awesome! I may never give it back!" said Joan and grinned broadly. Then, looking over at the group that appeared to be finishing up by the first body, she said, "I think I'll join them."

"Joan?"

"Yes?"

"Why did you land at the airport? The other choppers landed here."

"To attract less attention. Don't care for the virtual red carpet and flash bulbs between the chopper and the door."

"Oh. Makes sense. I'll remember that. Thanks."

Joan turned and walked over to the group by the first body. When she got there, SSA Rossabi just nodded to her and asked the ME to give her a quick review. The ME frowned and appeared slightly irritated at no introduction and her late arrival, never the less, he noted the unspoken respect given her by the rest of the party, so he put his best effort into a quick, accurate rundown of what he'd just told the others in detail. Joan didn't let him ruffle her at all. Just nodded her thanks when he finished and looked at the others as if to ask, "Were you about to head for the second body?"

With no questions forthcoming, the ME stood up without another word and led the group along the far side of the pushed together tables where the colonels' breakfasts still sat uneaten to where the second body lay. A similar scenario played out there with Joan added to the audience as he described what he saw and what he could conclude from it based on a cursory examination. He again re-enacted the path of the terrorist, which once again caused the group, except for Joan, to glance back and forth between the ME and Annie. He pointed at the wall where there were three obvious bullet holes, two with missing splashes of plaster and blood spatter, the third slightly higher on the wall looking like a clean entry. He also pointed out the bullet splash on the receiver of the shotgun.

While all this was going on, Trooper Benson showed up with their breakfast. Annie helped him get it off the tray and onto the table without incident. She quietly told Auggie the location of his plate and silverware, and once his fingertips had brushed over his setting, she leaned over and softly whispered the cues he needed to locate the items on his plate.

Benson watched the easy familiarity between the two and envied their being so close; they reacted almost as one. _Based on the story of their actions this morning, they are like that even under fire!_ he thought. _My gosh, I can't even imagine that kind of relationship, but I'd sure like one. Heck, I don't even know anybody who knows anybody with what they have together._

She interrupted his thoughts when she didn't see the check and said, "Trooper, I can't find the check."

"I asked for one. Nobody in the kitchen will let you two pay for anything. They are so grateful for what you've done they said to tell you they couldn't possibly accept payment."

"They don't need to do that. The owner is losing a ton of money on meals here. This isn't their fault"

"Ms. Walker, you won't change their mind. It's their way of saying thank you since nobody will let them come out and talk to you. You might as well just accept it."

Annie sighed, smiled and said, "Please convey my heartfelt thanks. I'd thank them in person but I just can't."

"I'll do that. Give me a wave when you are done, and I'll pick up the dishes."

"Will do. And thanks."

Benson gave a motion of his hand and headed off toward the front door but in a position where he would see them if she waved at him.

Annie began to eat the eggs slowly while she followed what was going on in the other part of the restaurant.

The bullet holes in the far wall caught her eye. Frank had taught her to learn from her after action review. _Those lower two holes must be from the bullets that went through his head and expanded, yuk. That third one must be a miss. Thank God, it went high. Good thing I was kneeling, the up angle of the trajectory kept those bullets above the diners at that table; need to remember that if I'm ever unlucky enough to be in a gunfight in a crowded restaurant again. Yeah, right, like I had time to think. Frank was right; you fight how you train because there is no time for anything else. No wonder he had me all banged up. I wonder if I'll have a bruise on my knee? I wonder where the fourth bullet went? _Her question to herself was answered when the ME pointed to the shotgun on the floor that had clearly been hit by a bullet that splattered on the receiver before escaping to parts unknown.

A few more minutes passed as the group was updated on the facts and observations that had been made so far. In the mean time Annie and Auggie had finished their breakfast and most of their coffee. Annie was exhausted but beginning to feel almost human again.

Trooper Benson materialized from nowhere with a bus tray. Annie gathered up the dishes and stacked them on the tray for him. He thanked her. She told him, "We're good. If you can be of use someplace else, please don't feel like you have to be trapped here with us. And please thank the staff for the delicious little breakfast."

The trooper said, "I will. Thanks, and I think you two can use some privacy in any event." He headed off to the back of the restaurant, clearly happy to have been of service. Annie appreciated the kindness thinking _that's a good man._

As Annie continued to watch, SSA Burk left the group and took out her phone. She talked into it for possibly 5 minutes while the others stayed with the ME. When she was done she walked over to Annie and said, "Okay, I have the picture. I just called the US Attorney, and he vehemently agrees. You are absolutely, totally in the clear legally on the basis of self-defense. I need to talk with you to get some details straight: like why you had the gun with you, your CCW permit etc., but I've been assured by Joan you have that covered. Thank goodness you are in Pennsylvania-"

Annie interrupted her saying, "Let's do that part right now - here is my Virginia permit; it covers me for Pennsylvania. Would you believe I was wearing the gun just because I can? We are on the road with an expensive collector car. A little defenseless blonde and a blind guy. I'm sorry, Auggie, that's how a predator would see us," she added when she felt him tense up. "It seemed like a good idea to be armed. So I was. I was off duty so there was no Federal prohibition. In fact, I carry off duty all the time every place it's legal. Good enough?"

SSA Burk smiled and said, "That's plenty good enough for me. I still need to have you walk me through what happened so I can record your statement. This has less to do with you than lessons learned for our agents. You staged a classic spontaneous take down about perfectly – in fact I can't think of a single thing you could have done better. We want to record that for learning purposes. But right now I'm going to go to the front. I think from the lines forming that some enterprising soul has taken the initiative to get things organized in my absence." She looked over to where the other investigators were talking among themselves and said a little louder, "Gentlemen?" They joined her and headed for the front of the restaurant.

Joan walked back over to them and asked, "Auggie, sorry I didn't ask before, how are you doing?"

He replied, "Joan, I'm fine. I was lying on the floor clear out of harm's way while my girlfriend here fought a small war and won. I'm not concerned for me at all; the gun shots didn't trigger any PTSD; my guys got the data from the pictures to the FBI per this text from Stu. We're good." He continued after a brief pause, "My concern right now is where to stay. We rented a car while we were here to drive back and forth from the fairgrounds to the motel so we could leave the Corvette parked on the fairgrounds where they had armed guards. We don't have access to that now."

Annie looked at Joan and Auggie for a second and asked, "Joan, could you send Uncle Fred ... uh ... Colonel Abbott, over here. He and Barbara, Ms. Abbott, were like a second Mom and Dad to me when we lived in Moscow - their daughter Betsy was my best friend. She lives well within a day's drive from here, so I'm sure she and her family visit. I'm guessing they might have a spare room for us, and if he doesn't, he may know someone that does. And maybe he'd have a garage we could park the car in overnight. The weather tomorrow looks great, and I'd like to drive back then if that's okay."

Joan replied, "No problem, I'll get him. It's best if folks don't know he and I know each other."

Annie said, "I noticed. You didn't give much away at the front door."

"Much?"

"I'm a trained spy, an observer. You were too close and didn't act like strangers and say something to each other when he held the door for you. You should have looked at him and said, 'thank you.'"

Joan looked at her for a moment, nodded, and said, "Point taken. Okay, I'll go get him."

###

The group of suits from the helicopters preceded the other members of law enforcement, who had arrived about the same time, into the restaurant. Detective West and Patrol Sergeant Rogers were two of the contingent that were following along behind their superiors like the unwashed. They didn't mind. They'd worked together for more than ten years and pretty much knew what each could do. Roger's strength was organization and management of people.

When they got into the entryway, Detective West looked at Rogers and said, "How about I stick to the bodies, if the powers-that-be will let me; you get started taking names?"

Sergeant Rogers nodded and said, "Works for me; those are my patrol guys in there anyway. Might as well get them to do something useful."

His casual nature notwithstanding, Sergeant Rogers stepped through the doors, saw three of his patrolman standing near the door drinking coffee and called them over. "Officers, vacations over. We have work to do. Set up tables there, there, and there," he commanded, pointing to where he wanted the tables set up. "And make room behind them for lines to form. I want the line back far enough from the table that you can talk to whoever you are interviewing without the other folks in the line hearing what is said. Got it?"

They nodded. So he added, "While you are getting that done, I'll make up a list of the questions I want each of them to answer. Get the restaurant cashier at another table so they can pay their bills on the way out.

"If any of them merit it, we will call them back in tomorrow unless they are here for the Corvette show, in which case we can take their statement today. Right?"

The three patrolmen replied, "Right!" and started to do what he'd ordered.

By the time SSA Burk arrived back by the door, she was pleased to see the state police patrolmen had already interviewed fifteen or twenty of the patrons and had them segregated into two groups: those that had seen something, those that just heard the noise. They were getting contact information from all of them. The restaurant owner was looking relieved at the patrons paying their bills. One of the late arrival patrolmen had a laptop in his cruiser which he brought in to enter the names.

She checked in with Sergeant Rogers and thanked him for getting it set up. She reviewed the questions, and then asked if they were checking cell phone and camera pictures. She said they did not want any pictures of the shooter or her companion to get to the media. Sergeant Rogers advised, "None of us here doing the interview have any idea what she looks like. So we can't check the cameras and phones."

Megan Burke said, "I'll take care of that. You follow me. Let them work. I'd like to request that you do the picture checking yourself. I'll introduce you to them so you can take a quick look. Once that's done, you can identify her and her companion if they are in any pictures. We are very concerned that there will be retaliation against them if their pictures and/or addresses get to the media. The dead guys are part of a cell of terrorists; these are only two of them. There are a dozen more.

Rogers replied, "Got it. No problem."

SSA Burk walked Sergeant Rogers back to the archway. When Annie looked her way she said, "Sergeant Rogers needs to see your faces so he can delete any pictures of you from phones or cameras."

Annie replied, "No problem," and stood up and faced them. So did Auggie. Annie noticed that SSA Burk didn't introduce them, just said "thanks, that works." Turned and headed back to the front. On the way, she asked "you will be able to identify her?" Rogers said, "Who could forget her?" Burk looked at him and said, "There is that."

About then Agent Burk saw Colonel Abbott and waved him over. He showed up and asked pleasantly, "How may I help you, Agent Burk?" She relayed Annie's request for lodging to which he replied, "That's great, Barb and I'd love to have them over - Barb was insanely jealous that I'd seen Annie and she hadn't. This will work out great. I have a garage to put the car in. We can park it right next to mine. We haven't had Annie for a sleep over since she was in Moscow." Seeing the puzzled look on Agent Burk's face he added, "Annie's an army brat. Her Dad and I were at the same duty station a couple of times. Annie and my daughter were best friends. She used to call us Uncle Fred and Aunt Barb. We'd love to have her and her boyfriend stay over as long as needed, and beyond. I'll call Barb and go tell Annie." Agent Burk had a good feeling about this and smiled saying, "Good, I'll consider it a done deal then."

Detective West passed by a few minutes later, studying his notes about the corpse in the entry way, on his way to join up with the ME in the back of the restaurant. The ME was still at the second body when he got there. They knew each other from years of these meetings. The ME said, "We have a middle Eastern male, 25 to 30, dead of two gunshots to the head, either of which would be fatal, one of which was instantly fatal, literally turned his Medulla into jelly. Based on the body position, blood marks on the floor, and what witness statements we have; he jogged through that back archway with his shotgun and took a shot at the table full of colonels. He missed high and blew out one of those windows. She shot him when he was about there; his momentum carried him to here. He was dead before he hit the floor. I don't think either one of them knew she was waiting for them."

West registered for the first time the word "she" when the ME had pointed at Annie and said, "She was waiting for him and took 4 shots. Two hit him in the head, through and through, to embed themselves in that wall. A third hit his shotgun; it's splattered all over the receiver and onto his face. The fourth missed high and hit the wall there," the ME added pointing at the high shot that is just a hole.

Detective West looked at him and asked, "Where was she?"

"Kneeling by the table on the other side of them from where she and her boyfriend are sitting now."

"That has to be what, 40 feet? He was running?"

"Yes, and there seems to be no doubt about that. It's apparently why he missed and shot out the window over there."

"She got some lucky shots."

"I don't think so."

"Why?

"She did the same thing to the other guy lying over there a few seconds before she shot this one."

"Really! That ... _girl_?"

"Yeah, _really_. That _girl_," he said mocking the Detective who he knew suffered from a serious case of what his wife called male chauvinist pig syndrome. "Come on, I'm done here; you might as well look at the other one. She shot him first. He was dead before he hit the floor too. She hit him 4 times with 4 shots. That _girl_ knows how to make bullets count."

As the Detective and the ME made their way to where the first one had fallen, Annie felt repulsed because the Detective looked at her like a bug on a pin. It was the first time all day she'd felt uncomfortable, and it irritated her. She decided the detective's attitude was not tolerable. Unknown to himself, the detective had painted a target on his psyche. He would soon learn Annie could shoot more than bullets. The Detective hadn't even introduced himself as a matter of courtesy. They passed down the other side of the row of tables and squatted next to the first body.

The ME took the lead and said, "Another male, looks Middle Eastern, 25 to 30, appears, based on superficial examination, to be in good health, dead of two gunshot wounds to the head. Both of the assailants were wearing body armor. She took two shots to the torso first then two to the head. According to Trooper Benson, she said she did that just in case he was wearing body armor. Which you can see," he said as he pulled open the jacket revealing the body armor, "he was. He also had this bandoleer of cartridges though I don't know when he thought he'd have time to reload."

"Where did he come from?"

The ME turned, pointed, and said, "Through that archway immediately after they came in the front door. At some point each of them fired a round into the restaurant but managed to only put one pellet in the arm of a patron in the main dining room."

"He ran through there," West said as he pointed at the archway, "while he racked his shotgun and took another shot which went right over her head and, I'm guessing, went through that window over there since there are two blasted windows?"

"Yes."

"She did it, the same basic thing, twice in a few seconds?"

"Yes."

"Wasn't luck."

"Wasn't luck, Detective. She is at least in the contest for the most skilled handgun fighter you will ever seen up close and personal. I've watched her move, and I strongly suspect she's pretty effective barehanded as well. You might want to introduce yourself to her, politely mind, and see if she will give you a statement.

"According to Benson," he continued, "the FBI has circled the wagons around them, won't permit any pictures of either of them, and plans to shepherd them out the back door once they have her statement. Biggest hero in the history of Carlisle that I know of is going to vanish anonymous in the night. Her name isn't to be released to the press, neither is his. The official reason is fear of reprisal - they have apparently identified these two," pointing at the bodies, "as members of a radical Islamist sect near Minneapolis. The FBI folks apparently know more but aren't saying much. Neither are the DHS guys."

"Who's the other blonde lady?"

"Ahhhh, the Blonde with no name."

"Huh?"

"They didn't introduce her. All the big wigs defer to her. All she has to do is look at them and they move. I think of her as The Blonde with No Name. I think her first name might be Joan, at least that's how I overheard those two address her, but they don't have to be real names either. She flew in from DC on the same chopper as that FBI guy that doesn't say much, went straight to the girl and her boyfriend, came over here, listened to everything I said, didn't ask a single question, didn't utter a single syllable, and headed right back to them," nodding at Annie and Auggie," and then disappeared into the back of the restaurant. Sort of spooky if you know what I mean. But I wouldn't want to get in her way either. This is the day of the scary Blondes."

"I think I'll leave her alone; she wasn't here when it happened, so it isn't evidence as far as I'm concerned. I'll see what those two have to say."

"He's blind."

"He's blind?"

"Yes."

"Huh. She have a permit for the gun she used?"

"Probably, seeing the Feds haven't asked for it. You want to know, go ask. It's what you do right, ask questions? I have a little more to do here. I'm told they are going to be after the bodies in a few minutes; they are being flown to the FBI morgue at Quantico for the autopsy. I wouldn't be surprised if those two were disappeared by the Feds shortly after the bodies. Benson said they had orders to give her gun back before she left."

"Give it back? Good luck with that. We don't give them back till after the trial. And sometimes not even then."

"If this is self-defense, and it pretty clearly is, there won't be a trial. I'm pretty sure the folks on scene here can make that stick."

"So we are going to give the gun pretty much right back?"

"What part of yes don't you understand?"

"Don't get cranky, what kind of gun was it?"

"I don't know, she allowed Benson and that patrolman to take it."

"Allowed?"

"Oh, yeah. Allowed was definitely the operative word. Neither one of them wanted to try to take if from her if she wasn't willing. She gives off that vibe that says don't touch me with anything you don't want to lose. While I was checking the body in the entry way, they said she was still a bit worked up, and her eyes were pretty scary. Looking at what she accomplished, I have no doubt she can be scary."

"That little _girl_?"

"Yeah."

"How did they get the gun away from her?"

"They didn't get it away from her. She let them take it."

"Really."

"Yes, really. She offered to stand up with her hands on her head and turn around so they could take it out of her holster. She was worried they might shoot her or her boyfriend with it by accident. She made them handle it with a napkin to preserve prints. Only hers and her boyfriend's should be on it."

"Her boyfriend is blind. Why would his prints be on it? That's a little fishy."

"No, it isn't. Her hands were shaking badly enough when it was all over that she couldn't get it in the holster, so he did it for her."

"Her hands were shaking huh? Maybe not so brave after all."

"You truly are an idiot. She was suffering from the aftermath of what must have been a pure adrenaline rage of unparallel magnificence without a lot of physical activity to use it up. I'm surprised she could still stand up. She did go to the ladies room to throw up. The nausea can be crippling for a few minutes while the body recovers."

"I didn't know that."

"You do now. Look, we're done here. You go interview her. I haven't got time for more of your nonsense."

Detective West tried to get his mind around the situation he found himself in. It wasn't easy. On the one hand he had this little blond _girl_ who, it was pretty clear, had single handedly stopped two armed terrorists that were in the middle of an assault on a restaurant full of diners with shotguns. She'd stopped them with head shots that were clearly skill, not luck. She'd hit something target related with 7 out of 8 shots. Nobody had a hit rate like that under the stress of combat, especially not with a shotgun fired just over their head. Two or three out of ten would have been more like it. This didn't sit well with his male ego or his view of women in general as the prey half of the species, clearly inferior to men.

On the other hand this was an event unparalleled in local history. It was going to rock the charts in squad room stories for decades with those who had even a minor role in it being the heroes. He wanted to be a part of that lore in the worst way. It would be only right. He had seen more suits and brass today than he'd ever seen at a crime scene, or probably ever would see again unless another terrorist plane crashed in the area.

He was a bit surprised his own chief wasn't here taking the opportunity to rub elbows with the power players from Harrisburg, Philly, and DC. The one thing he was certain about was he was going to _have_ to get a statement from that shooter lady in order to close the case and keep the Chief and his Deputy of Operations off his back, even if they redacted everything but the date. How tough could that be? Heck, Benson and Rogers got an interview, and they weren't even detectives. He had begun to pump himself up so he could feel superior; it helped a lot to intimidate witnesses. He especially liked the world view reinforcement that came with intimidating female witnesses and suspects, but he would never admit that out loud. He'd like to question everybody else first, but this might be his only opportunity if she was spirited out the back door. Nobody had told him not to, so he headed towards them, complete with attitude, to get it done. He figured, wrongly of course, that he just had to show her who was boss.

Annie saw him coming, sighed with resignation that this might not be pretty, because she'd been following the interplay while he spoke to the ME, who apparently didn't care if she could hear them. She said barely audibly with her lips near his ear "Auggie, that Detective that's been talking nonsense to the ME is working up his courage to come over here and question us. I don't think he likes me very much."

Auggie just nodded and mumbled, "Big mistake. Huge. Probably not trainable either. Try to avoid making him bleed, okay?"

Annie had a hard time suppressing a smile, but Auggie got a squeeze for his support and humor.

Detective West walked, actually tried to swagger, over with an official of importance expression on his face. Despite his best efforts, he failed completely to conceal his attitude from the woman he didn't know was a trained spy as he approached. He introduced himself saying, "I'm Detective West, I'm going to ask you a few questions now," as he ostentatiously opened his notebook and officiously clicked his pen. Usually that introduction, the foregone conclusion tone of voice and attitude, caused at least a look of concern on even the most hardened subjects' faces. Not in this case that he could see, which surprised him.

The man, who he could see might be blind but had that stealth kick-your-ass-into-next-year build, just appeared bored. The blonde sitting next to him, who had gotten strikingly better looking with every step closer, stared at his feet; then she rudely took her time and examined him from the soles of his feet to his hair cut, evaluated everything in-between, and apparently found it utterly devoid of anything resembling redeeming social value. She clearly saw right through him and failed to see anything worth remembering. Then, with a look faintly like she had bitten into spoiled fish, her gaze bore into his eyes in a way that give him a chill and had him take an involuntary step back. He almost tripped over a chair but caught his balance, shifted more into the aisle to give himself an escape route, and couldn't avoid being horribly embarrassed. He tried and failed to hide it, and he could see from her expression she read him like a book.

_How the hell did Benson and that wimp Rogers get her to talk to them?_ he wondered. He visibly gathered himself back up and tried again saying, "You _will_ give me a statement. You can talk here or at the station, but you are going to give me a statement or be booked for obstruction. You want that, to be booked for obstruction?"

The blonde's complete lack of reaction gave him a warning chill he disregarded. She was a _girl_ for goodness sakes. He had to admit, _girl_ or not, it didn't look like she was fazed in the least.

Then it got worse, because she stood up and moved into his space in one athletic, coordinated movement with the perfect balance and economy of movement that he'd come to associate with serious martial arts skills. She gave him that "look" again. In reaction he quickly backed up another two steps - the fact that she had killed two armed men before breakfast, made it look easy and was looking like a third would be perfectly acceptable before lunch, might have had something to do with his unease.

She said, very quietly, but in a voice that didn't look for an argument, "Detective, you have to be smarter than that or you would have urine stains all over those tan pants because you wouldn't be smart enough to undo the zipper before peeing. So why don't you do yourself a favor? Go see SSA Burk. I know you were introduced to _her,"_ with an emphasis on 'her' that let him know his chauvinist tendencies were exposed and had become part of her arsenal. "And you know _she's_ in charge of this crime scene. _She's_ right over there. The crime is terrorism, not murder or self-defense. Those dead bodies were the terrorists. They aren't terrorists anymore. They are rotting meat. I took care of them for you. I'm not a terrorist. And if you release my name, or my companion's name to the press, or anybody outside the official group of law enforcement assigned to this case, you will learn just how insignificant you are in the great sidereal movement."

He was speechless but tried to recover. He knew he was being stupid, but he just couldn't let this _woman _get the best of him. He was a man. He was the Detective here. He had the badge. He had her by nearly half a foot and a hundred pounds, and he had a gun, the thought of which had him place his hand on the grip for reassurance. That didn't go well either.

Annie saw him trying to pump himself up to continue the argument, which was confirmed when he unconsciously placed his hand on his gun. Normally she'd talk him down, but right now she felt like crap from the adrenaline and wasn't about to accommodate a fool. She uncharacteristically just didn't give a damn. When he laid his hand on the butt of his gun, she almost involuntarily responded to the threat. She stepped right up into his space again which took him by surprise. He reacted like she grew a foot, and the surprise continued when she said quietly and with 100 percent confidence she could make good on it, "Oh, you want to play guns little_ boy_? Need to put your hand on your gun to feel like a man? I _like_ to play guns. Go ahead, try it. Make my day, little boy. I haven't played guns in almost two hours. The good doctor over there is watching you make a complete fool out of yourself. You move wrong, I'll take that gun away from you, make you bleed all the way to the hospital so they can set your broken bones, and there won't be anything you can do about it because you unjustifiably threatened me. That's a promise. So _get it on or get out of my face_."

The ME looked up having caught the good doctor reference as well as most of the conversation from his location still at the first body only fifteen feet or so away from them.

Detective West was flushed burning red; he felt the heat on his skin, but he also had a strong sense of survival. So he carefully took his hand off the gun, held it out to his side, backed up a step and carefully moved away in the direction of the archway. When he figured it was safe he said with what he thought was authority, "I'll go get SSA Burk."

Annie said, "You do that. I'll be right here, try not to get lost," in a tone of voice that showed utter disdain for him and his expectations of manhood.

Annie heard the ME chuckle and looked over his way with a hint of a grin on the edges of her expression. He just put up his hands with a big grin and said, "If my wife and I ever manage to interrupt the string of sons with a daughter, I want her to be_ just_ like you. That was magnificent. If you could bottle and sell that, you'd be a zillionairess."

He was rewarded with a relaxed smile. "He had it coming."

"He did. And by the way, while I have the chance, please let me thank you very much for preventing a major tragedy here today," he said sincerely. "Your alertness, courage, and skills saved a lot of lives today. I don't know who you are or what you are, and I don't want to, but I'm really glad you were here. The people here were truly blessed with your presence. My brother was sitting right over there at that table between you and this first assailant. He thought for a few seconds after you knelt down there and brought up your gun he was a dead man. But you got the bad guys and missed the good people, all of them, including the four at that table down there who were clearly in the only line of fire you had. You had to take that shot, it was a hell of a risk, but you pulled it off. God bless you lady. I can see you are not a psycho, so I hope the aftermath goes ok for you. You will be in our prayers."

Annie remembered a wide eyed male, red hair, frozen with fear over the sights of her gun as the first terrorist passed behind him. Her aim had swung to lead the terrorist as he moved into the aisle. Annie hadn't realized how terrifying it must have been to see her there with her gun pointed almost right at his face. She felt bad for him but knew she wouldn't do anything different if she could do it over.

Annie looked at the ME and said just loud enough for him to hear, "I didn't know the red-headed man was your bother, but I did see him and waited till that guy got past him to the aisle before I fired. And you are welcome."

Auggie also raised his head, faced in the doctor's direction and said, "Thank you."

Then she sat back down, on Auggie's lap this time, unabashedly put her arms around his neck, kissed his temple and ended with her head resting against his, her eyes closed, wishing they were in his bed, her bed, any bed, any place. She wasn't choosy as long as it was warm and safe and they were together.

The ME saw this and figured that brown-haired guy must be some kind of special to have won the unconditional love of a woman like that. He nodded his head to himself, figured he was lucky to have seen people like them, and then got back to the final notes for his examination.

He realized, then, that he'd had his recorder going the whole time they'd talked, his usual practice to avoid having to take endless notes. Besides, he was used to dictating his findings which was standard practice during an autopsy. The good side of it was, since there were no names, he could copy the part of the recording that had his and the Detective's conversations with the blonde woman and play it back for his wife. She would like that. She couldn't share it, but she would be thrilled by it.

He finished, turned off the recorder, walked over to Annie and Auggie. He said, "I'm Dr. Malcolm, don't need to know your names, but here is my card. Please feel free to call me if you have any questions about the bodies or the autopsy results, want more tests. Anything at all."

Annie smiled at him, stood up, offered her hand, and said "I'm Annie, this is Auggie. Thanks for the card. We won't lose it."

The ME said, "My pleasure. It's an honor to meet you. My best wishes for you both." Then turned and walked away.

Annie took her habitual look around before she sat back down and saw Agents Burk and Rossabi approaching Colonel Abbott near the restaurant entrance. As she continued to watch, Burk introduced Rossabi to Colonel Abbott. They apparently wanted to talk, but the colonel held up a hand and pointed to a vacant area near the back of the restaurant. She saw the two agents nod and they all walked in that direction.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:** This is a re-write of the story to make it consistant with taking place a few months after the Season 3 finale.

I own nothing. Write this for fun.

**Chapter 4 - Interviews**

SSA Megan Burk looked at her watch, saw it was nearly noon and started to feel some urgency to get this over with. They had been here long enough. There were just a couple of patrons left; the DHS guys and the State Police brass had left after their time in front of the press talking about the continuing success of their war on terror. _As if they had actually had something to do with any of this_._ The only fighter in this case was a young blonde girl with the heart of a warrior. The FBI had done a study of what they called Warrior Personalities. If anybody on the planet fit the description, it was young Walker and probably her man based on Colonel Abbott's respect for him. And Abbott, she'd put in a call about him that spattered itself uselessly against a solid wall of redaction – his name, rank, and retired status were all that was available to her. I can't help but wonder if he and Joan don't know each other way better than they are letting on, but I'm sure not going to ask Warrior Joan either. The FBI profilers would have a field day with all of this – we have at least three full blown warrior types on site, probably more in the ex-military that were at that table and two dead terrorists, killed by the first warrior that saw them_.

The thought about the bodies jolted her back to the present and her sense of urgency and compulsion to catalog status ME was about to transport the two bodies. They had no more need for them on site. Transport to Harrisburg International where they would be loaded on a chartered plane was arranged. The operation in Minnesota was being setup by the SSA there with support from Quantico. They had cut the CIA out of the loop which probably wasn't a good idea if their people were anywhere near as good as the ones she had just met.

Her head wouldn't let it go for another few seconds. _Walker is something else._ _Smart, intuitive, incredibly effective under fire; and from the Detective's whining, it seemed she didn't take any crap from anybody. Some guys just don't get it. _She shook her head at the thought, _Walker had those guys figured out as home grown before we did; I wonder how she did that? I wonder if Colonel Abbott knows? I'd really like to know what was going through her head while that was going on. I don't think I've ever interviewed a true warrior personality before. That new agent, Bell, is supposed to be one;says so in her file, but she has never been in a situation like this that I'm aware of. I might have met some others, but how would I know if I hadn't seen them in action? Interesting question. I wonder if Colonel Abbott has any thoughts on it?_

Thinking of Colonel Abbott, this seemed like a good time to get the interviews done starting with him. She had reduced her list of the people she and Rossabi needed to interview to three: Abbott, Anderson, and Walker. Walker last so they could question her about any inconsistencies between her story and the others. The local patrolmen working the lines had gotten interviews from some of the colonels who had been a few feet from the action. Two of them had given simple but direct accounts that corresponded almost exactly to what Colonel Abbott had told them when they met in the parking lot three hours ago and with what Trooper Benson and Officer Fournier said Annie told them. Finally, the ME's reading of the bodies and the scene agreed with the stories she'd been told. This was looking very much like a done deal.

She had agreed that Rossabi would be on the interviews with her. She had her recorder and an extra memory chip with way more capacity, at two hours of continuous dialog, than they would need. Hopefully. Based on Ms. Walker's statement to Benson, which had not been preceded by a Miranda warning, something she had pointed out to his chagrin. They were talking about less than two minutes from the time Walker first spotted the guys in the lot to when it was over with nine-one-one having been called. There was no reason to make this harder than it looked. The crowd had thinned; most of the people had been sent home, and she would make arrangements for the restaurant owner to be compensated for the coffee she had made available to the folks working the scene. But it was time to wind this down and head back to Philly. There were things there that needed her attention.

She looked around and saw Rossabi sitting alone at a table, phone to his ear, lips moving. _Sheese! The man's always on the phone,_ she thought. As she approached he looked up, said something to end the call, stood up, rubbed his ear, and asked, "We are near the end?"

"Yes. The ME has the bodies about ready to go to Harrisburg International for transport. The vehicle is waiting. I've got my handheld and an extra chip. How about we get the interviews done?"

"Great. I don't want to be taking off from that little airport in the dark. Who, and in what order?"

"Abbott, Anderson, Walker."

"Works for me. If you don't mind, I'll record Walker on my phone in addition to your recording."

"No problem," she said then looked pensive for a moment and continued, "You can tell me I have no need to know, but I've seen a look or two pass between you and Walker that I think means you have some history. Is there anything I should know before we get into these interviews?"

"You are correct; we have history, pretty much all classified."

"Anything I can know about? Academic background?"

"Georgetown. Language major. Did a background check on her when I first ran across her. She's fluent as a native speaker in six languages. I've been told she 'gets by' in another dozen – Farsi being one of those. Her definition of 'get's by' apparently includes being able to pick up accents. It seems she's a truly gifted natural at languages."

"I see. Line of duty?"

"She's done us a couple of huge favors, handed me my biggest terrorist bust on a platter and just walked away. Looks like she has handed us another one."

"That remains to be seen, but it looks that way."

"The woman seems to be a better soldier in the war on terror by accident than most of us are on purpose. Today being a good example," Rossabi added.

"These people were lucky she was here. She stopped a massacre."

"She's like that."

"You've questioned her before, right?" Agent Burk wondered.

"Yup, got exactly nowhere," he said. He remembered her tendency to turn everything he said back on him as a question. And he was haunted by the tiny bit of smile that hovered just short of bursting free all through the session at the morgue. It said she wasn't worried at all by being taken into his custody. "If she doesn't want you to know, you won't get it out of her. You should know, she won't miss anything; she reads people like a book from across the room. She could be an OSCAR winning actress: absolutely the best liar I've ever met, but unlike some of those, she _always_ knows what the truth is, and that's what drives her. I've been a bit of a jerk and after what she did today, I definitely owe her an apology."

"Today?"

"Yeah. The selflessness of what she did at great personal risk. The incredible skill with which she did it. Then she just wants to fade away, take no credit at all. I'm humbled by it."

"I agree with you. I've not seen the likes of her ever before. I probably haven't seen the likes of her boyfriend before, either. But only their ID is classified here, so I don't think she will give us any grief. So far she's been front and center. I think this is just what it looks like. There hasn't been a shred of anything from eye-witnesses, to forensics, limited though they are, that is inconsistent with what Abbott says he saw and what she told Benson."

"I agree, but I think Joan wants to be there when you question her," Rossabi replied.

"I've no problem with that. I suspect Joan just wants to be sure we stay compartmentalized on this event and this event only."

"Probably, but it is Joan," which caused Megan to look quickly back at Rossabi.

Rossabi decided he shouldn't have opened that door and said a bit too quickly, "I see Abbott right over there," as he looked in Abbott's direction. "Shall we begin?"

Agent Burk apparently decided to let it go because she nodded, and they turned and walked over to Colonel Abbott.

The colonel saw them approach, and with a pleasant expression, asked, "Time for the third degree, agents?"

They couldn't help chuckling; then Megan responded, "Yes, I think it's time we took some statements and tied this off."

The colonel nodded and asked, "How about that empty table back there? Should put us pretty much out of hearing from the rest up here, give you a place to set the obligatory recorders and allow me to take a load off my aging feet."

Megan thought that would work just fine and said, "I'd like to sit down myself. Been on my feet on this hard floor since we got here." After which she nodded to Rossabi, and they headed for the table.

She noticed that the Colonel habitually took the seat that had him best able to scan the entrance, the annex, and have the kitchen door visible in his peripheral vision. _Ahhhh, _she thought,_ all is not on the front page with this guy either. What is this, a spook convention? _She and Rossabi sat down across from the Colonel. She grinned a little at her thoughts as she put down her recorder and looked up to begin her questioning. At that moment she saw the techs headed back with two gurneys to pick up the bodies.

Her eyes followed the techs for a second, and then she said, "This is SSA Burk and SSA Rossabi conducting the interview with Retired Colonel Fred Abbott, August 23rd, 2013, 1212 hours. For purposes of understanding, the speaker is Agent Burk. Agent Rossabi, please say your name."

"This is SSA Vincent Rossabi, Washington office," Rossabi replied.

"Colonel Abbott, please state your name, data of birth, and residence for the record."

"Colonel Fredrick Abbott, 11 April 1949, 27 Moreland Avenue, Carlisle, PA, 17015."

"Colonel Abbott, how long have you known Anne Walker, sometimes known as Annie?"

"Off and on since," he paused to think, "1990, but I got to know her best in 1996 and 1997 when her family and mine were both stationed in Moscow."

"Do you have any official or professional relationship with Ms. Walker?"

"No, just a family friend. Mostly my daughter Betsy's friend. She and Annie were best friends when they were in Moscow. Until yesterday they hadn't spoken since. Annie called her after we bumped into each other at the Corvette show and sat down for an hour of catch up talk."

"Do you know August Anderson, Ms. Walker's companion?"

"Yes. But when and why is still classified. I knew him before he was blind. This is our third encounter since he lost his sight. I will limit myself to this statement: In my experience, August Anderson is a man of the highest integrity, exceptional intelligence, incredible valor, and excellent character who did, and who continues to, sacrifice much for the safety of his country. If you need more, you need to get proper authorization through channels." Agent Burk replied, "That's plenty; he isn't the main focus of this interview, but he is here. He was literally at Ms. Walker's feet during the incident, calling it in if my understanding is correct."

"At this point I'd suggest politely that you ask him and Ms. Walker."

Megan replied pleasantly, "I will in a few minutes."

"I like the few minutes idea," the colonel said with a grin. He noticed the gurneys with the bodies on them were about to pass through the front door.

"Colonel Abbott, please talk us through this weekend. Focus on your encounters with Ms. Walker and Mr. Anderson. Begin with your first encounter with them and any other encounters including this morning."

Colonel Walker gathered his thoughts for a few seconds, sat back, and started to talk in a pleasant, unstressed voice, "I was walking in from the back display lot at the Corvette show when I saw the two of them together. Annie caught my attention first; there was something familiar about her, and then I was surprised to see her holding hands with the man I knew as Captain Anderson. It was then I remembered who she was.

"I admit I was so excited to see them I turned to jog over there and saw Annie pick me out in return. As I got closer she turned and whispered in Auggie's ear. His response was a big grin, and then he stood up straighter, if that's possible. Colonels have that effect on Captains." He grinned.

"I had a happy reunion with both of them. We must have talked for over two hours. At one point Annie asked for my daughter Betsy's phone number which left Auggie and I to catch up with each other."

"Catch up on what?" Megan asked.

"Patching over a disagreement we had the last time we saw each other about five years ago. Which you will doubtless know is right after he was blinded. And that's all I'm going to say about that."

"Okay, did you see them again before this morning?"

"No."

"When did you see them next?"

"Right after I parked my car, I saw her whip that 427 of theirs into a parking space about in the middle of the lot. I waved to them and intercepted them before we got to the restaurant door."

"Were you expecting each other?"

"No."

"The meeting was coincidence?"

"Yes, but I had a reason to be here. I'm retired now, but my last assignment was teaching at the War College here in Carlisle. There are a lot of retired colonels in Carlisle that used to teach at the War College. We get together every couple of months to have breakfast here. This was one of those mornings. That's why there were so many of us here today."

"Did you invite Ms. Walker and Mr. Anderson to sit with you?"

"No, but I did ask if they would come over so I could introduce them to some of my friends and colleagues. I knew some of them had served with Annie's dad, Colonel Bart Walker. He was, and is, a legend in Special Operations. I thought they would enjoy that."

"And did that happen?"

"Oh yes. Annie picked the table where they sat. It was both close to us and strategically located to give her a commanding view of the parking lot and restaurant entrance. I assume both of you are read in, possibly more than I, so you know living under conditions of extreme social hostility, often lethal, is clearly second nature to her."

"Yes, but I really don't know what that would be like. And now probably isn't the time to learn. To get to the bottom line, it was clear to you that she picked the table she did out of habit? There was no chance she picked it because she knew what was going to happen?"

"Oh hell, if she'd known that was going to happen, she'd have called it in and had HRT here," he said with some irritation. "She's incredibly courageous, more skilled than either of us will ever know, but she is far from either stupid or a female John Wayner."

Megan got the John Wayner reference. Law enforcement used it to refer to folks who would take foolish risks to get a flashy reputation. She agreed completely that Walker was no John Wayner. In fact there was strong evidence she was, in her chosen career and in her life, the disappearing hero who worked her wonders, then faded into the background. She looked up from her thoughts and said, "I absolutely agree; she's not a John Wayner. In fact, she's pretty much the exact opposite: the reluctant hero who performs an act of valor with incredible courage and skill, then quickly fades into the shadows till next time."

"That would be Annie."

"You introduced her to your friends. Describe that please."

"Well, I actually introduced them to Captain Anderson first. His exploits are well known and admired in some very exclusive circles. A few of my colleagues belong to those circles. Some of his missions are part of the curriculum at the college but not with his real name. My friends were honored to meet him."

Megan's already high level of respect for Annie's companion jumped up a lot of notches when she learned that. But Captain Anderson wasn't her focus; Walker was, so she continued, "Please describe what happened when you introduced Ms. Walker."

"I introduced her as Colonel Bart Walker's daughter. To a man they stood up, wanted to meet her and shake her hand. A few of them remembered her from her youth and talked to her in the language of the country in which they had met her, because they knew she spoke the language."

"What languages?"

"Um ... besides English, I think Russian, French, Portages, Italian, Turkish, and some dialect of Chinese. Probably nothing Middle Eastern other than Turkish. I think the Chinese guy spooked her with what he said, because she shut him up in Chinese, and then they left. Although their food had arrived by then, so that could have been why they left at that moment. Anyway, it was a fun few minutes."

"Please describe what happened next?"

"They left, I saw her guide him back to their table with his hand on her elbow, which they seem to do as routine. I lost track of them and was making my way to my seat when I heard her shout, _'Colonel Abbott, there are two Tangos with shotguns in the parking lot heading for the front door; get your people down now!'_ It was a command voice I've never heard from her before. I reacted by yelling to my friends to hit the deck, and to the extent that crowded tables full of stiff old colonels can do that, they did. I think we were finally all on the floor about the time the action was over."

"Were you in a position to see what happened next? Specifically Ms. Walker's part in it?"

"Yes."

"Please describe what you saw." She saw Colonel Abbott's eyes change, lose focus as he relived what happened next. His voice changed, got both quieter and more urgent as he spoke.

"I couldn't take my eyes off her. I never did get all the way to the floor." He paused.

"Please continue, Colonel."

"Wha ... uh ... oh, yes. She got a mission face. She looked all around, reacted to the shot in the entry way, and a couple of seconds later dropped to one knee facing along the aisle between the tables toward the front of the restaurant. She extended her pistol straight out facing her only field of fire. I could see her head track the guy coming through the archway and when he crossed the aisle she shot him four times, bangbang ... bangbang ... like that. He went down. She somehow did a one-eighty to face the other way in an instant. A couple of second later she re-extended her gun and shot the second man as he crossed that end of the aisle, cleared left, right and behind, reloaded with a spare magazine from her purse, stood and cleared 360 looking for more threats.

She made it look easy. It wasn't. It happened a lot faster than I can tell it. From the time the first guy came through that archway till they were both dead and she was reloaded and had cleared the area couldn't have been more than 15 seconds. I thought for sure the people at the table down there, on the other side of the second guy she shot, were going to be collateral damage, but she missed them. She did it all just right. None of us old guys could think of anything she could have done better. She even stood up, did a three-sixty, cleared the area. Damn, that was an amazing performance," he added with a bit of wonder in his tone.

"Okay, now let's take it one step at a time. She had the gun on her?"

"Yes."

"Where was it?"

"In a holster under her vest about here," he said pointing at his lower left torso."

"Had you known it was there?"

"No, I didn't know she was packing. If she was packing yesterday I didn't know it then either. It was a complete surprise when the gun appeared in her hand. I didn't see the holster till she had Auggie put the gun back. Her hands were shaking too much for her to re-holster it after it was over."

"How did she shoot if her hands were shaking that badly?"

"They weren't shaking like that when she had to shoot. It was a post engagement adrenaline reaction. Captain Anderson put the gun back in the holster for her."

"What else did you see?" she asked.

"Nothing specific. The attack was over after she killed those guys. She asked me to take charge, and I did till Trooper Benson and Patrolman Fournier arrived, and at their request, I helped them to get organized and calm people down."

Agent Burk looked at Agent Rossabi for a few seconds then asked, "You have any questions Agent Rossabi?"

Rossabi said, "No, this is pretty self-explanatory, and completely consistent with all the other versions we've gotten. And it's told from a better vantage point. I'm ready to talk to Anderson."

Agent Burk said, "Colonel Abbott, thank you so much for your help with this, and for answering our questions. I have your card; here are ours. If you think of anything you might have missed, please feel free to give us a call."

Colonel Abbott stood up; they shook hands. He said, "I'll go call Barbara," and headed off reaching for his cell phone.

Agent Burk stood up and said, "I'll go get Mr. Anderson. We should be done with this in half an hour or so. By the way, where did Joan go? Have you seen her?"

Rossabi replied, "She was in the restaurant office back there to stay out of sight. She was on her phone last time I saw her. You want her out here?"

"I don't think we need her, and I don't think she wants to be in the public view, so let's leave her out of it and just get this done. There are no surprises here."

Rossabi replied, "I'll be right here."

**###**

Agent Burk walked back to find Annie with her head on the table resting on her hands, eyes closed, apparently taking a nap. Auggie was sitting doing something with his iPhone. She confirmed the bodies were no longer there.

Auggie said, "Hello, Agent Burk, done with Annie yet?"

"Not yet. We have Colonel Abbott's statement. We would like to ask you a few questions next and then Annie; then you should be out of here. You okay with that?"

"I think so, just a minute." He touched Annie's shoulder.

She shifted then picked up her head, looked in Auggie's direction, saw Agent Burk and asked, "May we leave yet?"

"Not quite yet. We would like to ask Auggie some questions and then get your story. After that we will be done."

Fully awake now, Annie said, "I think you need to get Joan before you question Auggie. Where is she?"

"Out in the restaurant office with her phone glued to her ear."

Annie replied, "I'll get her. Meet you where Rossabi is sitting?"

"Is that necessary?"

"Only if you want us to answer questions," Annie answered sweetly.

Megan knew she was going to lose this one so she said, "Go ahead, we'll meet you over by Rossabi."

Annie stood, tucked her purse under her arm and brushed the back of Auggie's hand; he took her elbow and followed her towards the back of the restaurant. On the way, Annie saw Trooper Benson, so she altered course and headed in his direction. He turned to meet her, and she said, "Trooper Benson, please give my gun back, now."

"Nobody told me to do that."

"I just did."

"Is that enough?"

"What do you think?"

He replied with no hesitation, "It's right over there on the table. Both magazines and the loose round out of the chamber are right there with it."

Annie walked over; saw it lying there with the slide locked back, the two magazines and the loose round. She picked it up along with the full magazine, verified the serial number, slammed in the full magazine, flipped the slide release to chamber a round, checked the loaded chamber indicator with her right forefinger, pushed her vest out of the way and stuck it back in her holster seemingly all in one smooth motion. She picked up the magazine with two rounds in it, added the loose round and put that in her purse.

She was so quick and handled the weapon so naturally that Benson almost wanted to ask her to do that again, just so he could watch, but he thought better of it. He figured it confirmed his thoughts that she had spent a lot of hours training with that gun, or one just like it.

He asked, "Why do you want it back now?"

"Because I want it. The CSI folks and the bodies are all gone. I'm going to give a very short statement to Agents Burk and Rossabi; then Auggie and I will be gone, and I don't want them to have it hostage to hold me here when I want to leave. We good?"

"Ms. Walker, we are always good, I'm not about to challenge you on anything. You do it, I'll swear to it. I gave them the statement you gave me as close to verbatim as I could remember it. If I don't see you again, it was an honor to meet you. And I want to thank you for what you did here. You have inspired me to look for more challenging opportunities. Do you have any kind of a number where you can be reached if I need a letter of reference?"

Annie gave him a Smithsonian card. He looked at it for a few seconds, looked like he was going to ask a question, thought better of it and said, "Thanks. The whole town wishes you well. I wish the two of you good luck."

Annie said, "Thanks," as she noticed Agent Burk approaching.

Burk said, "Thought you were going to get her?"

"I am, had some unfinished business here. We're on our way."

"You got your gun back." It wasn't a question.

"I did."

"Can I have it till after the statement?"

"No, want to give me yours?"

Agent Burk stopped and looked at Annie, who had also stopped, relaxed but perfectly balanced on her feet, for a few seconds. The eyes gave Annie away. Agent Burk looked at them, open and unblinking, and shuddered a little like she'd just looked into a freshly opened grave. She shook it off. Then she said, "If you wanted mine you could just take it away from me, couldn't you?"

"Either of us could."

Agent Burk said, "I believe you. I'm just now beginning to appreciate the saying 'An Armed Society is a Polite Society'. Peace guys. I do not want to quarrel with either of you. Not today, not ever. We aren't supposed to interview people while they are armed, but the people that made that rule have clearly never met the likes of you two. If you were in a room full of them, they wouldn't know it but they would be the ones who were surrounded. Let's go get this done, so you can get back to what's left of your weekend with that man of yours."

Auggie visibly relaxed, said, "I'm standing here, ya know," and grinned broadly. Annie hip checked him with a smile as they started to move again.

Agent Burk relaxed and exhaled in relief. She had begun to realize just how much those two resembled self propelled deadly weapons.

As Annie and Auggie headed for the back of the restaurant Auggie asked, "Can you see a men's room?"

"Yes, I'll take you there. You have your cane? Yes. Okay. Door on your right. Wait here when you are done; the women's room is just down the hall. This was a great idea."

A few minutes later Annie emerged into the hall to find Auggie waiting for her. She brushed his hand, and they walked around to head back towards the restaurant office. There were only a few people in the restaurant now; most of them had left while she was taking her brief nap.

They found Joan with Agent Burk already there. Agent Burk raised an eyebrow in a question to which Annie replied, "Long overdue bathroom break". Then she looked at Joan.

Joan said, "You both will have to give a brief statement to Agent Burk for the record. After that we will make our exit. I have Colonel Abbott's address. Rossabi will ride with me; Mrs. Abbott will give us a ride to the airport after we drop off the car. We'll do the statements right here. I need to listen to them, and I don't want to be seen with you two out there with so few people around because we would be easier to remember."

Annie looked at Agent Burk and asked, "You want me to get Agent Rossabi?"

"Okay."

Annie left and headed out to find Rossabi staring at the screen saver on his phone. He looked up at her as she approached and motioned for her to sit. She said, "I'm supposed to bring you back to listen to statements from Auggie and me."

"Ms. Walker, please have a seat. I just need a minute or two of your time. I'm not going to ask you for anything, just want to say something."

Annie cautiously sat down on the edge of the chair, looked in his direction, and said, "Oooookay. You have the floor."

Rossabi said, "I just wanted to apologize for my previous behavior as a bureaucratic jackass. You are just what you seem to be: a dedicated agent trying to do her best. You are about as political as a marshmallow - that's a compliment," he added quickly when he saw her shift on her seat. "Anyway, here's my card. If you, or your partner, ever need anything, you call, and I'll be there."

Annie was astonished and a bit suspicious; this was NOT the Agent Rossabi she knew. "Agent Rossabi, what brings this on? Anything I need to know about? To be worried about? How big is the other foot?"

He said, "No, just … well … I heard the story of what you did here; I saw the evidence of the practice and dedication you put into your work. You and your partner put it all on the line for a room full of strangers when you had enough warning to escape unscathed. And now your only concern is to remain anonymous, so you might be able to do something equally selfless at some other time or place in the future. Actions speak louder than words. It put everything in perspective. I am humbled by that. So I apologize for my earlier conduct. Please take my card."

Annie got up, walked around, offered him her hand, took the card and said, "Accepted. Shall we go get this over with? My partner is really my boyfriend, and I want to spend another day with him before we are back in it again Tuesday."

"Agency allows dating co-workers?"

"As long as it doesn't hurt our performance. And in our case, it doesn't."

"I see that. You've worked together to help me before, haven't you?"

"You have no idea what you are talking about," she said with a faint smile that reminded him of when she'd said that same thing to him in the interview room after he found her in the morgue.

"OK, got it."

They walked to the office, Annie leading the way through the narrow hallway. When she got there, she saw Agent Burk's recorder ready to go on the desk with Auggie getting ready to make a statement. She squeezed by Agent Burk to stand by Auggie. He took her hand as Agent Burk asked him, "Please state your name for the record."

"August Anderson, Social Security number 123-45-6789."

"Within the limits agreed to by Joan Campbell and I, please recount your perception of the events of this morning beginning with Annie Walker telling you to get on the floor."

"We had just returned to our table from having a bit of a reunion with some comrades-in-arms I served with who also knew Ms. Walker's father. Annie had just oriented me to the location of my food and its placement on the plate. I was about to pick up a fork when she shouted a command for me to get on the floor and call in a code related to the restaurant we were in being invaded by armed hostiles to an emergency response number. The exact code is classified. I was on the line when I heard a muffled shot; then one or more people shouted Allah Akbar. There were two more shots, shotgun by the sound of them, and much louder than the first. I felt more than heard Ms. Walker get lower to the floor. Then I heard shouting in what I think was Farsi and running feet. There was another shotgun blast that was really loud and close, and then I heard her gun fire four shots, two double taps. They should be on the tape at the other end of the phone call.

After that my hearing was not so good for a few seconds. Her shots were really loud. I thought I heard sounds of movement where I knew she must be, but I might have felt it too, and then I heard four more shots, again two double taps. There were confused sounds, the crash of metal on the floor. About then I heard sounds as Annie reloaded her pistol. It was really quiet for a few seconds, and then I heard Ms. Walker ask Col. Abbott to take over. After that there was a lot of confusion. I can't tell you much more than that."

"Thank you. Ms. Walker, Joan has requested that we dispense with more back ground than your name and social security number as we did for Mr. Anderson. Then you tell us what happened between the time you saw something suspicious in the parking lot and when the threat was ended."

Annie looked at Joan, Joan nodded.

Annie took a breath, gave her name and social security number. Then she told her story exactly as she had told it to Trooper Benson earlier in the morning. When she was done, Agent Burk thanked her and turned off the recorder. Burke looked at Rossabi, and he indicated that he had turned off the record app on his phone and laid it on the desk by the recorder.

Agent Burk turned to Annie and said, "Okay, Annie, if I can call you that?" Annie nodded. Burk continued "This is completely off the record. The FBI has done some studies of people and their performance under what they charitably call conditions of extreme stress – academic speak for real life fights to the death, which this was today. All in, win or die. They have come up with what they call the Warrior Personality type. Based on what little I know, I'm looking at three of them right now – you, Mr. Anderson, and Ms Campbell. I would be eternally grateful if you would be willing to do me a big favor and answer a couple of questions for me completely off the record. You are the only one I can ask the question of because you are the only person I know that I can even try to ask.

Annie nodded, willing to at least hear the questions.

"Off the record, what happened to you? How the hell did you do that, girl? What was going on? How did you assess the scene, get in position, and pull off eight shots like that with a baby Glock? Colonel Abbot said you reacted like a striking cobra when he met us in the parking lot and actually cautioned us about making sudden movements near you till you had come down from what he called your 'Warrior Moment.' I thought he was exaggerating, but he clearly wasn't. He said you didn't even blink; you just took them on – all in, no notice, outnumbered, failure is not an option, and you put them down hard with no collateral damage beyond some plaster and blood stains. Even those grizzled combat vets, some with silver stars, several with multiple purple hearts, were impressed. So how did you do it?"

Annie looked at Joan who said, "You don't have to answer, but it's okay if you do. No specifics about missions, but a very brief overview of your combat history, if you are willing to share it, is okay." Then to Agent Burk, "The Agency has read the studies, I've read the studies; we've done our own. You are right; they have classified Annie as a Warrior. She knows it; they told her for her own protection."

Agent Burk asked, "And you?"

"Yes, but I'm not willing to talk about me at all."

Annie sighed and leaned against Auggie who put his arm around her waist. She closed her eyes for a few seconds while she gathered herself to make a very difficult speech. She said, momentarily very wet-eyed, "I am not a freak. Agent Burk."

"I know you aren't. You are just a very rare but normal personality type."

Annie continued like she hadn't heard her. "God, I hate this rubber head human resources crap. I'm normal. I'm not a freak or a psycho. I don't feel like a freak, or like I did anything the rest of you wouldn't have done in my place. I saw them in the parking lot prepared to come in and slaughter innocent people. It set me off. Pushed my 'on' button so to speak. What you saw in there are the after effects of primal rage. Rage focused by hundreds of hours of strenuous training." Her eyes got hard; they could see her momentarily flash back into the moment. "I wasn't going to let them do that to all those innocent people, or to him," she added while squeezing Auggie's other hand.

Then she came back to the here and now. "This isn't my only gunfight. I've been in several others – All but once the other guys all died. I lost one because I wasn't armed when it started. I was ambushed and shot twice in the chest." She paused, took a deep breath, then continued, "Killing people has consequences, but it's a hell of a lot better than being killed. I know, because I've 'coded' more than once, but apparently I'm hard to kill."

Agent Burk was stunned by the admission but kept her face carefully expressionless and said nothing.

"For me the process is very simple. If someone, or some group, is about to do harm or grievous injury to myself or innocent parties, it's game on. I don't think of consequences or losing when I'm fighting. There is no time and no brain cycle to spare for that. Every part of my mind and body is totally focused on the objective." She paused; her eyes looked inward and troubled. "The aftermath, the part that comes later, is really ugly sometimes." She trembled a little and added directly to Auggie, "I will need you tonight." Then she returned her gaze to Agent Burk and continued, "I can almost always hold off the reaction till the first time I'm safe. Then I fall apart for a while, sometimes in a plane, sometimes in an extraction chopper-"

"Ahm." Joan cleared her throat before she might go too far.

Annie paused, squeezed Auggie visibly and continued, "He is my rock." She stopped; her whole body sagged a little in the total silence. Then she took a deep breath, gathered herself and stuffed the dark thoughts into a compartment. She looked them each in the eyes and continued, "Right now I'm exhausted and on the back side of an adrenaline crash. Can we please just be done with this? I want food, sunshine, air blowing in my hair as Auggie and I fade from view to somewhere safe. Someplace that is not here. I don't feel safe here."

Agent Burk said, "Annie,that looked like it really hurt. I apologize, I truly did not mean to hurt you. I had no idea of your history." She turned to Agent Rossabi and asked, "You already knew this?"

"Some of it. I knew she'd been shot, but I think we just got the tip of the iceberg."

Burk looked back at Annie and said, "I'm so sorry if I hurt you – for someone so young you have a remarkable history. I just wanted to see if I could begin to understand, and that short speech was more helpful than you will ever know. You helped me as much as you could help anybody who hasn't experienced it. Thank you for that. I have an agent I am told is like you who I need to understand. She doesn't have your experience. I don't think she has ever been in a fight to the death. You've clearly been in several. But, I think your warrior tendencies may cause you to go rogue, but in the right way, now and then. She does."

Joan looked at Annie and Auggie and laughed out loud. Agent Burk said "What?"

She kept her eyes fixed on the pair as their history flashed in her mind. She said, "Rogue? Oh, my God. You have noooooo idea." She held her gaze on Annie and Auggie for a couple of seconds longer, then looked back at Agent Burk to signify her speech was over.

Burk got the message and flashed Joan a bit of a grin, "I might have more idea than you think." She paused to glance at Annie and Auggie who were trying their best to look innocent and continued, "Or maybe not. Too bad we can't compare notes. I'd bet large we have some good stories to tell, but that will never happen. And that's a true shame."

Agent Burk shook her head and continued, "OK, enough of that. Thank you, to both of you, for what you did in there this morning. You were the right people in the right place at the right time. You saved a lot of lives, averted a lot of tragedy, and you certainly deserve to have your wishes for privacy and a time to heal completely respected. We _will_ keep you out of the paper. Period."

Annie piped up and said, "Then you better get the footage from that security camera that's been looking at us."

Rossabi said, sounding proud of having done something right, "Got it covered. The system doesn't actually work, but we confiscated the disks anyway."

Burk said, "We're good?"

Joan said, "We're good."

They all shook hands.

Annie and Auggie shifted a little. Joan said, "Thank you from all of us. And thanks you to both of you for helping us with our quest to keep their covert status intact. Nobody appreciates that more than we do."

Then Joan said, "Agent Rossabi, if Annie gives me the keys, I have our ride located in the parking lot. Agent Burk is going on the FBI chopper to Philly. You are going to have a woman driver in a totally hot car experience. This is your lucky day. Or worst nightmare, to be determined."

Annie chuckled, gave Joan the keys to the Corvette and said, "Please keep it shiny side up."

Rossabi asked. "Wait a minute, what am I riding in?"

Joan said, clearly enjoying the moment, "Come on, all you need to do is get in, sit down, hang on, and shut up!"

Rossabi looked mortified, but game, and followed her out the door.

Annie chuckled again, Auggie looked stricken that Joan would be driving his car …okay, their car … but didn't say anything.

Just about then Colonel Abbott came around the corner and said, "Barb has left the van parked out back and taken my roadster home. You kids ready?"

"YES!" they said in chorus, laughed, hip checked each other, and held hands as they headed out of the office.

Auggie wondered out loud if they could find some food on the way. Annie tugged on his hand and said, "Come on appetite, we're outta here! I haven't seen Aunt Barb in a decade, and she makes the best apple pie on the planet. Maybe if we've been good she will make us one. I don't want to be out in restaurants in these clothes on the off chance we run into someone that saw me at the diner today. I'll put a scarf on my hair and wear different clothes when we head back."


	5. Chapter 5

**AN:** This is a re-write of the story to make it consistant with taking place a few months after the Season 3 finale.

I own nothing. Write this for fun.

**Chapter 5 - Sleep Over**

Colonel Abbott checked traffic and pulled out onto Route 11 and headed back into Carlisle and thought, _Those kids have had a hell of a day compared to what they planned, but they seem to be taking it well enough. Annie looks like she's recovering, wonder if she's hungry?_ "Annie, Auggie, you ready for something to eat?"

Annie replied for both of them, "I know Auggie's famished; he has the metabolism of a humming bird, and I could use something more plus another cup of coffee. But we'd rather not go into a local eating establishment just in case one of the hundred and however many people from the diner was there. Plus we do need to meet Joan and Agent Rossabi at your house, assuming, of course, Rossabi survives the trip with Joan driving."

Colonel Abbot chuckled and replied, "Roger that. Got ya covered," and reached for his cell phone. "Barb," he said when it connected, "I've got Annie and Auggie captive in the back seat headed home. Should I pick up some takeout at Cracker Barrel on the way?"

All three of them chuckled as he grimaced and held the phone away from his ear. They could hear Barb talking pretty fast and with some excitement. When she paused for a second, he brought the phone back and said, "I'll take that as a no." Listened. "We are probably 15 minutes from the driveway. Joan Campbell and FBI Agent Vincent Rossabi may arrive ahead of us in Auggie's Corvette. I plan to lock it in the garage for them while they stay with us." Another pause with muffled sounds from the phone. "Yes, please go ahead and open the garage door. I'm pretty sure Joan will drive right in when they get there." He listened, scanned the freeway and merged onto Interstate 81 South. Then he looked in the rear view mirror at Annie and Auggie and asked, "BLT's and a soda?"

Auggie nodded and Annie said, "That would be great."

"BLT's it is," He said into the phone. Nodded again and said, "Sounds good, see you soon ... bye." He glanced up in the mirror, then back at the road before he said, "Annie, she may squeeze you half to death she's so excited to see you. Auggie, I know you've never met her, but when she sees you with Annie, she will want to adopt you. Annie's always been one of her favorite people."

Annie said, "That's very much a two way street, Uncle Fred."

Colonel Abbott continued down 81 for a few minutes then moved over to take the College Street off ramp. As he headed onto the residential streets leading to the house, he looked up to see Annie taking advantage of the reduced speed to roll down the window as she looked around and quietly described the area to Auggie so he could enjoy the trip. Seeing a big empty lot she asked, "What used to be in that big open space?"

Colonel Abbott answered, "That's where the Carlisle Hospital used to be. It's been replaced by a bigger facility south of town. They have good medical facilities here - Women's center, Cancer Center, and if something out of the ordinary happens, we are only about half-an-hour to forty minutes from the Penn State Hershey Medical Center, and that's world class all the way. For those of us who are retired military, if we have to, we can drive to the VA hospital in Virginia, but not many do. Being retired military, we also have access to the commissary at Carlisle Barracks which has an excellent selection and great prices."

"What do you do for fun?" Annie wondered aloud.

"I've found some good streams for fly fishing. Barb and I like to go hiking; there are hiking trails all around here from the Rails-to-Trails program. I go running on the old rail beds pretty often. They are relatively straight and level, so I can run for miles through Pennsylvania farm land if I want to. I just feel better when I get out and do that three or four times a week. Plus, it's outside which is good. Carlisle Fish and Game has several excellent sporting clay ranges. I don't shoot there a lot, but every now and then, it is fun to bust up a few birds."

"I have the 'Vette, and I really enjoy spending time with it. I enjoy keeping it in show condition and the occasional club outing. We have an old carriage house in the back yard that I've converted into a small shop, so I have a heated place to work on it or do urban survival fix it tasks. I really enjoy my time out there futzing with things. I can heat it in the winter if I have to. I've done some simple tasks to improve the accuracy of my ground hog rifles. My reloading bench is out there. It's a nice place to go immerse myself in something that might help to keep the brain from turning to oatmeal as I get older.

"Speaking of ground hog rifles, I've done some ground hog hunting. One of the other guys, you didn't meet him this morning, put me in contact with a few local farmers, and they love to have us get rid of the pests for them. I find sitting out there really relaxing, and if a ground hog wanders into view, it's a bonus.

"Another big plus about being retired is I finally have time to do some pleasure reading of things other than military history and tactics books. There are some good story tellers out there. What are you guys doing for fun?"

Looking up as he finished, he saw Annie look at Auggie who nodded before she replied, "That sounds really good, Uncle Fred," adding with a catch in her voice, "Dad would have loved all of that." Before Colonel Abbott could react to that, she hurried on, evidently trying to cover the catch in her voice. "We've been working and socializing together for a couple of years but only dating, exclusive, for a couple of months. We go running, work out at the gym and the usual dinner stuff. But it's really fun to listen to music, or watch a movie at the apartment where I can describe the on-screen part without annoying theater patrons. Auggie's a Mingus fan. I went to the Mingus tribute festival in Stockholm before I met him, and I think he's been a bit jealous ever since," she giggled for a second as Auggie poked her.

Auggie interjected "She managed to tell me that within a couple of hours of when I met her the first time, I think I started to fall in love right then."

Colonel Abbott looked up at Auggie in the mirror when he said that and thought_, Wow, he'd never have said something like that back in the day. She's really good for him, loosened him up a lot. I suppose, knowing Annie, I shouldn't be surprised, but it's a good thing regardless._

"Ah! I presume Joan is a bit of a lead foot? I'm pretty sure that's your gorgeous roadster pulling into my garage. No justice merchants with flashing lights in sight, so apparently she outran them, or they were all at the donut shop."

He pulled easily into the driveway and avoided running over an excited Barb who was locked in on the door closest to Annie. He smiled as his wife, a trim, still very pretty, little woman maybe five feet tall with an amazing smile and bursting with welcoming energy, opened the door, practically dragged Annie out of the car, pulled her into a big tearful hug and said, "Annie Walker, you look absolutely beautiful, stunning, and I can't believe you're here. My God, it's good to see you. I told Betsy you were coming, and she is insanely jealous." Colonel Abbott nodded to himself as she pushed Annie back to arms length to take another look while it looked like Annie struggled to keep from crying with joy. Then she gave Annie another more tender hug before taking a deep breath.

Annie said, "Your hugs still feel really good, Aunt Barb. I didn't realize how much I've missed you all these years. I got your cards when Mom and Dad died, but it just feels good to see you in person again. Boy, do we have some catching up to do."

At that moment Colonel Abbott saw Auggie as he emerged from the car and stood up, apparently locating Annie by sound, when Mrs. Abbott said with obvious joy, "And who is this handsome young man you've brought along? Annie Walker you've been keeping secrets!"

Annie smiled and said with both pride and sincerity, "Let me introduce you to the love of my life, Aunt Barbara, meet August Anderson."

It looked to Colonel Abbott as if Auggie was feeling victorious for just having managed to emerge from the car unscathed with all this energetic greeting going on just beyond the door, and he blushed a little when he was squeezed into a warm hug by an energetic little Aunt Barb as she said, "Welcome August, I can't wait to get to know you. Annie loves you, so I already know I love you; I just need to find out the details so I can enjoy it more."

Auggie managed to make a noise and then said, "Please call me Auggie ... it's good to finally meet you too. I've known and admired your husband for fifteen years, but it was always in the line of duty."

About this time, the colonel saw Annie become aware of Joan and Agent Rossabi taking in this scene, both clearly enjoying what they saw. She blushed a little, probably for having said the "Love of my life," bit in front of Rossabi. Joan already knew; she'd signed their close and continuing forms after all. But apparently Annie figured she'd better do more introductions ASAP. So when Mrs. Abbott released Auggie to get a good look at him, she said, "Mrs. Abbott, I'd also like you to meet Supervisory Special Agent Vincent Rossabi from the FBI Washington Office, and Joan Campbell. Joan, Agent Rossabi, Mrs. Abbott, I call her Aunt Barb."

Joan said, "Very pleased to meet you, Mrs. Abbott," and held out her hand.

Ms. Abbott shook it saying, "Please call me Barb."

Releasing Joan's hand, she turned slightly to acknowledge Agent Rossabi. She took his offered hand while she said, "Pleased to meet you as well, Agent Rossabi."

Knowing the answer would probably be a negative, Barb asked, "Joan, Agent Rossabi, do you have time to join us for lunch?"

Joan spoke for the two of them saying, "We really need to get to the airport and get in the air back to DC. We've been gone since early this morning, and I'm pretty sure Agent Rossabi's platter has gotten more on it after this morning just as mine has."

Decades as the wife of an army officer had Mrs. Abbott trained to deal with situations like this so she said, "We'd love to have you join us, but I completely understand. Fred, if you would do the honors of driving them to the airport, I'd be delighted to get some lunch ready so these two don't vanish from starvation."

Colonel Abbott looked at Joan and Rossabi and said, "I'll do that. Annie, Auggie, see you when I get back." He turned to Joan and Agent Rossabi and said, "Hop in, it's just a few minute drive."

Joan looked back at him and said, "I need a quick word with Annie and Auggie, and then I'll be ready to go."

She walked away toward the garage and actually into it to stand between the two Corvettes. Annie and Auggie's car made little clicking and popping noises as it cooled down. Annie brushed the back of Auggie's hand; he took her elbow, and she guided him to join Joan. When they got there, Joan handed Annie the keys to the 'Vette and said, "Almost forgot, you will need these. Great car, Auggie. I managed to get here without a ticket, but it wasn't easy. Rossabi hung on; took it better than I expected."

Annie said, "It is fun to drive."

Joan moved closer to them and said for them to hear, "I don't want to see either of you at the office before Thursday morning. Got that?" She waited for them to nod before she continued, "You both know the drill, but I'm going to say it anyway. While you are here in town go to ground. Stay inside as much as possible, clear your tail, take the shortest route to the interstate when you leave, obey all traffic rules religiously. Once you get an hour or more south the chances of you running into anyone who saw you at the restaurant are pretty small." They both nodded again.

Annie said, "Thanks for the support. I know this wasn't easy. Sorry to have made such a ruckus. Hopefully it will die down quickly, but just my luck tomorrow will be a slow news day."

Just then Agent Rossabi's phone rang. He excused himself from Colonel and Mrs. Abbott, walked a short distance away and answered it. He said "Rossabi," and then listened intently, looked into the garage where the three CIA officers were talking, then nodded and said, "Got it."

He lowered the phone, looked thoughtful for a second, then slipped it into his pocket and looked questioningly at Joan, who nodded and waved him over. When he got there, he addressed the three of them saying there would be a full report later, but HRT had located and taken control of the rest of the cell outside of Minneapolis.

Annie asked, "Did it go OK? Did they get them all?"

Rossabi said, "I'll send the full report; you folks deserve it. They apparently had perimeter alarms and put up some resistance. Most of them survived, and there were no HRT injuries. We are hoping to get some useful Intel out of them. They are in custody, and it could take a while, but anything we get we will forward to you."

Joan said, "Very well. Thank you. Now, Agent Rossabi, we need to get to the airport. I'll be a lot less nervous when we are airborne back to Quantico."

Rossabi said, "Goes double for me after the ride in that 'Vette." He shook hands with Annie and Auggie and headed for the van.

Joan put her hand on Auggie's shoulder while looking at Annie and said, "See you Thursday morning. Annie, your Rome trip is canceled."

They both nodded. Annie said, "Thanks, see you then." She brushed the back of Auggie's hand; he took her elbow, and they moved out of the garage to wave goodbye as Colonel Abbott backed out of the driveway.

With that done, Barbara said, "How about you two grab your bags out of that car. I'll let you get settled while I make some BLT's. I have some really great bacon from the Amish store south of town, homemade bread, and some delicious, vine ripened tomatoes from the farm stand on the way back from getting the bacon. Fred and I love BLT's this time of year. Annie, you two are in the first room on the right at the top of the stairs, bathroom is the next door on the right. It's a guest room, drawers and closet empty, move in."

Auggie said, "I can hardly wait; Annie, are you still here? Have you opened the trunk yet? She was talking about food."

###

Annie looked around as they made their way through the house and up the stairs to the guest room. She found the Abbotts' home to be very comfortable feeling, spacious enough for occasional visitors, but not so big the two of them would feel lost in it. There was plenty of furniture, Auggie was feeling and tapping a lot with his cane as they made their way through it on a crooked path. It had four bedrooms and a bath upstairs. When they took the full tour later, they learned the master bedroom suite had been added on downstairs by the previous owner. Its own full bath and a powder room had been added at the same time. The way it was done the exterior matched the original house. The addition extended the house into the backyard, but it didn't look out of place, and there was plenty of yard left. The back yard had been landscaped to the point where it looked very nice, but it wasn't going to be a second career or require a hired gardener to take care of.

To the right along the side of the lot on an extension of the driveway, there was the detached two car garage where their Corvette was parked plus the old carriage house out back that she assumed was the converted small shop where Fred could work on his Corvette and do his fix-it tasks. There was a single car attached garage that Annie assumed was where Aunt Barb parked her van. Uncle Fred's pickup was parked next to the detached garage, which Annie guessed was because their Vette was in its normal parking spot.

She loved the way the kitchen was arranged in a rather compact "U" shape which give quite a lot of counter space. It had granite counter tops that were perfect for a baker like Barbara. The layout assured that everything was very convenient and wouldn't require many steps to prepare a meal. There were cupboards to the ceiling that looked all of nine feet tall.

When they headed upstairs she couldn't help but notice the stairs were noticeably steeper than she was used to. In fact she mentioned it to Aunt Barb. Mrs. Abbott replied, "Yes, that's pretty common around here. These aren't bad; I've been on some in old farm houses where climbing ropes and pitons wouldn't have been out of order. The main part of this house was built shortly before 1850, and it's a relatively new house for this part of town. You realize this town was founded in 1751, 25 years _before_ the Declaration of Independence was signed? Right?"

Annie admitted she hadn't and stopped herself from suggesting a walk to read the historical reference signs down town because they might be recognized, and that wouldn't be a good thing. Not good at all.

Auggie said, "Maybe next time we can do the walk, and you can tell me about this town?"

_How does he do that? Read my mind like that? But never mind that; I like the "we" and "next time" part for sure. Lots of next times in fact._

Colonel Abbott returned from the airport a few minutes after they finished unpacking the few things they would need for the night. Annie had freshened up a bit: brushed her teeth and changed her shirt, both of which she had wanted to do for a while.

They sat down and enjoyed a delicious lunch, every bit as good as Annie remembered from her visits with the elderly pair over a decade ago in another place and time. Barbara offered coffee; they all accepted, and finally apparently Barbara could hold back her curiosity no longer because she asked, "Okay, I fed you. I've been patient and nobody volunteered. Curiosity is killing me. Will at least one of you please tell me what happened at that restaurant this morning before I implode? I've heard endless speculation on the radio and seen some news coverage of the parking lot with yellow tape. The media claimed, and complained, they were being held at the edge of the parking lot. The Department of Home Land Security guy said only it was a terrorist attack, that two terrorists and one innocent civilian had been killed. No names released for security reasons, all precautions were being taken, blah, blah, blah. You lovely people were all there, in mortal danger. You could have been killed. I know you know what happened. I'm surprised you weren't in the middle of it," she said as Annie saw her look hard at her husband. "I'll take whatever oath you need, but someone, please, tell me what happened before I scream with frustration."

Annie saw Colonel Abbott look at her in effect asking _me or you?_ Annie nodded acceptance and said, "I'll tell her," which caused Barb's attention to instantly lock onto Annie.

She turned to look at Barbara and said in as level a voice as she could manage, "Aunt Barb, it wasn't Uncle Fred. It was me. I _was_ in the middle of it. Two armed terrorists stormed the restaurant in a blitz attack apparently aimed at killing as many of the staff from the War College as they could. I saw them in the parking lot in coats that were way too warm for the weather, saw them tuck shotguns under their coats, figured out what they were going to do, ambushed and killed both of them as they attacked in the restaurant. That took about a minute from the time I saw them till they were ... were ... dead ... on the floor." She sighed, then sat up straight and continued, "The rest of the day was the FBI and Home Land Security trying to contain the aftermath, observe all the legalities, and protect Auggie's and my identities from the media. If someone mentions a blonde woman with a gun on the news, that would be me, but they don't know that, don't know my name, and I would be in great danger if they found out."

They all sat silently waiting the several seconds it took Barbara to comprehend what she heard. Her reaction surprised Auggie but not Annie or her husband. She reached across the table, clasped Annie's hands first with a look of fear for what could have happened to her and then with love and concern for her well-being, the latter became evident immediately, "Oh my God, Annie! In a room full of people, you had to stop them? Were they shooting at you? How did you do that? They had shotguns. You could have been killed!"

Fred said, "They were shooting at me, and my friends, right over Annie's head."

Annie saw her react to look at her husband before she said, "Fred, I almost lost you again. I thought it was all over when you retired."

Annie squeezed her hands back and said, "Aunt Barb, I'm okay. Uncle Fred is okay. I just happened to be the first one to see the threat. In the time left there wasn't time to do anything but get ready, warn Auggie, Uncle Fred and his buddies to get down, and they were on us. I had coincidentally picked a table that was in the perfect defensive position. All I had to do was draw my gun, kneel down, and take them out before they ever knew I was there. And I did exactly that."

"You carry a gun?"

"Yes. I do but only when I'm off duty. I hope it's okay. I'm carrying it right now. If it's a problem we can stay someplace else, but I'm not giving it up with those kinds of folks out there."

"Oh no, no problem with me. Carry as many as you want. Fred carries one pretty much all the time since he retired. I do sometimes, but your generation usually doesn't. We haven't had to use ours, thank God. Enough about guns. You killed two people. I realize they were trying to kill you, but that still has to be hard on you. It was on Fred. Are you coping? I know from Fred that what you have been through this morning isn't going to be easy on you. Do you need anything?"

"I have Auggie, Aunt Barb. Uncle Fred knows him well, knows Auggie will know how to take care of me. He and Auggie apparently served together back in the day."

"I didn't meet Auggie back then, but Fred told me about him after he caught up with the two of you at the car show. Is there anything else you can tell me about what happened?"

Annie considered a minute and said, "That's pretty much it in a nutshell. We, the FBI, and the DHS people, went to a lot of trouble to make sure our names didn't get out. We are hoping nobody outside of the immediate law enforcement team can identify us. All the first responders were sworn to secrecy. We think the rest of that terrorist cell was rounded up this morning, too, but we can't be sure they didn't communicate outside of their group, or that the FBI got them all. We don't want to be targets, so remaining anonymous is vital to our safety."

Barbara Abbott replied, "What did the FBI and DHS people do?"

Annie explained, "They were a huge help after the fact. The FBI got all the other agencies - like the Carlisle PD and the local district attorney - to agree they wouldn't release my name. The Carlisle PD checked cameras and cell phones to delete any pictures of me. And the DHS folks handled the media. I quite serendipitously handed DHS a good anti-terrorist news story when they could use one. They are probably going to claim increased public awareness, blah blah blah made a difference here. It will take the spotlight off me. I just want to fade into the background and let them - anybody else - take the credit."

Colonel Abbott added, "Barbara, there are some things we shouldn't get too far into. There were several reasons for protecting their identities, including Auggie's job at the Pentagon."

Annie saw Barbara looking at her with a face that showed both wonder and intense curiosity. Then, with tears running down her cheeks, she got up, came around the table, pulled Annie up into a hug with surprising strength. "Annie, thank you for saving my husband's life. I understand what Fred is telling me. I won't ask any more questions. But I will pray for you and Auggie every day."

Annie sighed and sobbed softly while Barbara comforted her. They parted, and Barbara said, "Let's talk about something else." Annie got her breath and nodded.

Barb asked, "How are Danielle, Michael, and the kids? I heard they are in California."

The evening passed quickly. The only bump in the road being when, at Annie's request, Colonel Abbott turned on the TV to get the local news, and they found out the restaurant was the lead story. It was the lead story on the national news too. Driven by the 24 hour news cycle to say something, even if it was meaningless inane drivel, the talking heads and talking expert heads, utterly failing to say anything useful, chewed any possibility of meaningful information into articulated static. There was intense frustration at the name of the hero who stopped the attack being kept out of the news. The networks were interviewing every patron they could find looking for information on the person that single handedly stopped the attack. Annie was concerned to hear mention of a gun waving blonde lady that people thought was a big hero, but who nobody could name. One man, who claimed he was in the restaurant, said, "There was this totally hot blonde with a gun; she disappeared, then I heard shots. All I could see was the guys with the shotguns went down with blood spurting out of their heads. I think she shot them dead while they were running at her."

The reporter continued the interview, "What else did you see? Was it chaos in there afterward? Anybody get hurt by the stampeding crowd?"

The man looked affronted, "Who said there was a stampeding crowd? It just got real quiet for a couple of seconds. Then I heard sounds like someone was reloading. After that I saw her stand back up, with a gun. She looked all around like Rambo; then we all heard a female voice say, 'Colonel Abbott, please take command before things get out of control,' or something like that. Then this old guy shows up in front of the restaurant giving orders to a bunch of other old guys, must be ex-military, who came out of the other part of the dining room, and everything went fine. Weren't no panic, no stampede. She killed 'em. The Army guys took over."

"Who bandaged up the wounded?"

"We had two wounded that I know of/"

"Were they screaming or anything?"

"No! Stop trying to make things up. An ER nurse was there; she used the restaurant's first aid kit. One guy had one shotgun pellet wound in his arm. He had been sitting near me which is why I know that. The other lady got a gash in her face from the barrel of the guy's shotgun when it came flying through the air and hit her. That's what she said, anyway. The nurse worked on her too."

The newscaster apparently didn't like the request to stop making things up, so he said as the camera left the former diner and turned to him, "Thank you for sharing your terrible experience with us. This is Chet Donnley, KNBC News 11."

The several FBI and Home Land Security officials interviewed said the shooter's name was being kept secret for fear of reprisals. They wouldn't even confirm it was the blond girl. In fact they wouldn't even confirm how many shooters there were.

There was no mention of the take down in Minnesota.

Annie breathed a little easier when she saw the news coverage and it didn't show any pictures of her. There were lots of "blondes" in the world.

###

After they had bid good night to Auggie and Annie, the Abbotts finally made it to bed. Barbara reached out to her husband, then slid over and gave him a hug. She felt so glad, so relieved, he was there beside her. "Fred," she whispered, "Let me get this off my chest. I think Annie and Auggie are CIA. She's a covert officer, not sure what Auggie is – I know he worked with you, but he's blind now. I've listened to you talk about people in fights, about training, about fighting how you are trained because there's no time to think. What she did today, what she said, what I heard on the TV, what you said she did today wasn't luck or chance. It was training, skill, courage, and attitude. She picked the table where they sat. Not Auggie.

"Barb-"

"Fred, let me talk, please.

"To use words, vocabulary I've learned from you over the years, she identified the threat, accurately assessed it, evaluated her options, chose her strategy, set up her ambush, and put them down, hard, before they could kill her or the rest of you. She did that all in the space of what, twenty or so seconds?

"That wasn't an amateur act. That wasn't the act of an acquisitions employee at the Smithsonian who spends time at the dojo or the range for a hobby. That was the act of a very resourceful, highly-trained professional extremely adept with violence. I'm right, and you know it. Our sweet little Annie can go off like a Claymore with about the same effect.

"So what can she be? She doesn't have a badge so she's not FBI or DHS or ordinary law enforcement of any kind; she's not military, and she's way, WAY too good to be an amateur. The FBI and DHS came here, not to investigate the terrorists, but to hide her and Auggie from the press. We saw two FBI Supervisory Special Agents, Two DHS, and one of the State Trooper Headquarters Command Staff here in the restaurant where two terrorists were taken down. Why would they do that? The fear of reprisal is real, but that's a full court press when they could just take them into protective custody in a safe house someplace till they get the rest of them.

"I'm almost certain Joan was from the same organization as Annie and Auggie. She acts, and they respond, like she is their boss. By process of elimination she's a covert officer either with the CIA or some even more secret government organization. Agent Rossabi was introduced as an FBI Agent. She was introduced as Joan Campbell, no title, no reason for being here. When she wanted to talk privately with Annie and Auggie, they responded immediately, no questions asked.

"I think she's CIA. I hope she's CIA. I'd hate to think our sweet Annie was into the really dark side things, but her skill set says she could be. I'm going to assume for my peace of mind she's just a covert officer gathering intelligence, trained to protect herself, and not a trained assassin."

Fred replied with concern, "Barb, I don't think we should talk about this."

"You aren't; I am; don't try to shut me up. This is between you and me and my pillow, and I have to get this off my chest to somebody. I'm not going to say anything to anyone about them. Ever. I love those two young people, and they sure as little green apples love each other. They finish sentences for each other. They are both always aware exactly where the other one is. She is so in his space she accommodates his blindness without thinking about it."

Fred nodded and said, "You should have seen them together in the restaurant: how he took care of her, how she took care of him, how they related to each other like two sides of the same person. It was a thing of beauty and a joy forever," Fred responded.

"I'd like to have seen that, but don't try to distract me." She paused almost daring him to argue with her. He didn't, so she continued, "I have to wonder what else she can do besides kill two terrorists before breakfast and get by in a dozen or so languages. Watching them move, she and Auggie both remind me of that martial arts instructor you used to go to. She's turned out to be a pretty impressive woman, I think."

Fred agreed, "Okay. I admit I came to the exact same conclusions. I agree with everything you said, but do not _ever_ repeat any of this to anybody, especially Betsy. If it got out it could put the two of them in mortal danger. If it got out that we know, it could put us in mortal danger."

"You know I won't, sweetheart. But I just had to get it out to somebody, and since I was ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent sure you already figured all this out, and I was right about that; you were the logical choice. Just so you know, I'm pretty sure you and Joan have history, too." She felt him draw a breath getting ready to protest, so she put a finger to his lips and said, "No worries, darling. Whatever it was, it was professional, not personal - you connected, but you were not that comfortable in each other's space. Nobody else would be able to tell, but I know you better than anyone else alive, and I can tell.

"Now I'm going to try to get to sleep, but I may end up needed a glass of warm milk before that happens. Thanks for listening. I was going to explode if I didn't get that out."

"You have a good sleep. We need to get up and get those kids on the road tomorrow."

"Good night, Fred, I love you."

"Love you too. I have always loved being married to a smart woman. Good night"

###

Annie heard Auggie breathing steadily and knew he was asleep. Her eyes were wide open. She managed to reach her phone and check the time; it was 12:30 AM. This would not do; she needed some sleep. She managed to extract herself from the bed without waking Auggie. She used the flashlight app on her phone to find a big button shirt which she slipped into. She dug some sweat pants from her open travel bag and pulled them on. Then she went to look for some Aspirin. She found a bottle of them in her kit, put two in her hand and then quietly made her way out of the room. She kept her phone with her so she could use the flashlight app to make her way down the stairs to the kitchen.

She discovered Aunt Barb had left a couple of night lights plugged in on the first floor, so she turned off the phone app and made her way to the kitchen to fix herself a glass of warm milk.

She sensed someone else in the room and froze. She breathed out softly and forced her mind to calmness. Why had she left her gun upstairs? She forced herself to stay calm, wished she hadn't left her gun upstairs. She found a shadow and squatted down. In a few seconds she recognized the moving form was Aunt Barb in a bathrobe. She seemed to be en route to the kitchen as well. Annie grinned to herself and whispered, "Aunt Barb, can't sleep?"

"Wha … oh, Annie," she whispered back. "No, I told Fred I was probably going to need a warm milk. They still work for you?"

"They do. I closed the bedroom door when I left. We can probably talk if we stay quiet?"

"I think so. I plan to use the Microwave; Fred never hears the buttons beep at night. Will Auggie?"

"He might, but if I'm not there, he'll think it's me."

"Okay, let me do this …" She turned on another light that was on a dimmer so it wasn't too bright, poured a couple of small glasses of milk, put them in the microwave, set the time for about 40 seconds, and pressed the start button.

A sense of safety and comfort washed over Annie. She could remember teenage sleep overs when she was restless, and Aunt Barb had warmed up milk for them back then, too. She was about to mention it when Barb turned in her direction and froze. Her gaze was fixed on Annie's exposed chest. Annie's heart stopped until she realized that Aunt Barb could see the still raw scars of her gunshot wounds. She snatched the open vee of her shirt and pulled it tight about her neck.

Barb sucked in a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again to look right at Annie with such compassion Annie thought her heart would break. Barb walked over to her and gently pulled her into a hug, her body shook with quiet sobs. Annie said, "It's okay, Aunt Barb. I'm alive. I survived it."

She felt Barb's head nod. Then she backed up, took both Annie's hands and said quietly, "Annie, you were shot twice in the chest. It wasn't even a year ago based on the condition of those wounds. I used to volunteer in the Veteran's hospital; I know what they look like. And then, yesterday, you took on two armed terrorists. I can't believe you did that. You have more courage in that skinny little body than some big mean Spec. Ops guys. Are you going to be okay? Long range prognosis good?"

"Yes. The bullets missed my heart, liver, major arteries, most organs, and my spine. They did enough damage that the person who shot me left me for dead. I was lucky that she was interrupted and had to leave quickly, or she might have finished me off. I coded once in the ambulance, again in the ER. I was lucky with the timing. Both times when it happened there were trained people there, that were able to revive me."

"You coded; you mean you died? You were killed? They brought you back?"

"Yes. All of that."

"Thank God you are okay." She moved up and gave Annie another hug, this one more gentle. Then she froze for a second or two and backed up. She looked directly in Annie's eyes and asked, "Is whoever did this still after you? Are you in danger?"

"No. Not in danger from that shooter."

"You are sure? According to Fred, they seldom give up."

"Absolutely. She's dead."

"How do you know?"

Annie paused and then figured Aunt Barb wouldn't give up or feel safe till she knew, and she wouldn't tell anyone, so she took a deep breath, let it out, and said, "Because, Aunt Barb, I hunted her down and shot her to death like a rabid dog about six months to the day after she failed to kill me. I put two bullets through her evil heart when she went for her gun. I don't regret it at all. What came after was hell, but killing her was worth it."

Aunt Barb said, "Good!" Gave her another squeeze, backed up, took a deep breath and said, "You are one scary lady, Annie Walker. I never want to be on your shit list."

"Aunt Barb, you are on my very short list of very good friends. You, Uncle Fred, Betsy, Auggie, Danielle and the kids. That's the whole list."

" I'm not going to ask any more questions. I feel like a drink, but this will have to do," after which she passed Annie one of the glasses of milk from the microwave.

Annie realized she hadn't heard the microwave beep. She said, "Aunt Barb, you have already figured it out haven't you?"

"What? That you and Auggie are CIA agents, spies? Yes. Fred and I both did. I think Fred figured it out about you 30 seconds after he saw you with Auggie at the car show. He's known about Auggie for years. We had some pillow talk after we went to bed tonight, and agreed we would not ever tell anybody or talk to each other about it again. But we both figured it out."

"I'm not happy with myself for acting in a way that gave it away to you. But I'm not sure what I could have done differently either."

"Just so you know, we are both so proud of you we could pop a button. I know your Dad would be too. So would your Mom, but she'd be terrified for you as well. I'm scared for you, because after what you did today, whoever shot you had to be really good."

"I never suspected her. She was so good at what she was doing that she completely deceived me and everybody else too, including Auggie. But unknown to us, her time had run out. She was cornered. Cornered people with a strong survival instinct are extremely dangerous.

"I was unarmed in what should have been a totally safe place, Danielle's kitchen, with my then lover, not Auggie. This was before he and I started dating. We'd been best friends, but never dated. The traitorous bitch ambushed us, shot and killed him, then shot me twice in the chest. I didn't see it coming. Not even a hint."

Aunt Barb looked at her, reached over to hold her hand for a few seconds and then said, "Annie, send me a message of some sort a few times a year so I know you are okay. Please?"

"I will do that."

"Thanks. I really appreciate that. … You want a couple of Aspirin to go with that?"

"I brought two down with me and took them already. But thanks for remembering."

"How did Danielle take it when you were shot?"

"Dani has been read in. She knows what I do. But that's it. She does not know what I told you tonight, although I owe it to her to tell her the same thing. She flew back to see me in the hospital, and had to stay in a motel because her house was a crime scene. She was border line hysterical for a while, but she's okay now. I will have to call her when we get home tomorrow and bring her up to speed. She knows we were at the car show, and she'll have seen the picture in the paper and know it's me. So I'm going to get grilled. She doesn't have the number of this phone, and I don't want to call her from it unless it's an emergency."

Annie finished her little speech and then yawned.

Aunt Barb looked at the clock on the microwave and said, "Annie, we need to get back to bed. You have to drive back tomorrow, and lord knows what all else, before you have to get back to work."

Annie took their glasses, rinsed them out, then turned and gave her a hug. "Thanks for being here. You can tell Uncle Fred what I told you, but nobody else. I'm hoping to have cosmetic surgery to hide those scars better before summer. I don't want to have to answer questions about them. And I'd still like to wear a bikini for Auggie if we go to the beach. He can't see it, but he knows I'm wearing it. And he likes it."

"He's it for you?"

"Yeah. I haven't told him that, yet, but yes, he's definitely it for me. We are hoping to go visit his parents in Glenco, Illinois, over Thanksgiving. I've never met his parents, his four older brothers, or his three sisters in law. I'm a little nervous about that, but I'm going to go. I think I'll wear turtle necks the whole time."

"Never be ashamed of your scars, Annie. You survived the event. They just show how incredibly tough you really are."

"I'm not ashamed; I just don't want to have to answer questions about them and lie. My whole life is a lie except when I'm with someone that's been read in. That isn't very many people. Auggie's family doesn't know what he does for a living. And if we get lucky, they won't learn what I do either."

"You'll do just fine. Now, we really do need to get some sleep. Sleep well, Annie."

"You too, Aunt Barb."

Annie turned and made her way to the stairs, then used her phone to find her way up the stairs to the bedroom door. She let herself in as quietly as she could to be greeted by a change in Auggie's breathing. "You awake?" she whispered.

"Barely. Trouble sleeping?"

"Yeah, went to the kitchen for some warm milk and met Aunt Barb there for the same thing."

"I heard voices. You okay?"

"Yes. I don't want to talk right now," she said as she changed back to what she planned to sleep in. "Will you just hold me so I can go to sleep?"

Auggie held up the covers so she could slide in and move over next to him, and said, "You bet, come on over here."

She did. Snuggled up next to him, whispered, "I love you," and drifted off to sleep. Auggie listened for a couple of minutes and realized she'd fallen asleep almost immediately. So he relaxed and soon was asleep as well.

###

Auggie woke before Annie. They were in their usual spooning position with him behind her. He felt and heard her breathing and was glad that she had finally fallen asleep late in the evening. He was careful to keep his breathing even and to not move. He wasn't sure of the time. The house was still quiet but there was some traffic on the street.

He thought about yesterday with all its drama, trauma, and stress and was glad it was behind them. Annie was clearly going to need some time to recover. This was just the sort of cap on an awful year that neither of them needed. Jai getting blown to bits right in front of Annie. Annie getting shot by Lena. The months of physical therapy, visits to the psychologist, getting well. Then going to Russia hell bent on what was essentially a suicide mission to find and kill Lena. He'd not known if he'd ever get the chance to tell her he loved her. Truth be told, it was closer than either of them liked. Her imprisonment, subsequent escape with his and Eyal's help, the list went on and on. It was a wonder she didn't wake up screaming more often.

He was glad they had today, and the next two, off. He hoped they could find another officer for the Rome mission to give Annie time to cope with what she'd had to do. _Had_ was the right word. Auggie knew full well that, in Annie's mind, not stopping the attack wasn't an option. It was her nature – both one of her greatest strengths and weaknesses. He remembered the two times she went in to save that Mossad Agent Eyal Levine from almost certain death against impossible odds. He was on the phone with her both times. And the recent incident when she'd rescued him from Kahlid Ansari by shooting him with blanks. Before Lena it just didn't occur to her that she could fail.

Then she was shot by Lena. She had said more than once Lena killed her. He'd held her while she suffered through nightmares, cared for her after she woke up screaming, drenched in sweat with her heart racing. But with time, she got more or less over it. Not completely, but she was functional, as yesterday had certainly proven. She was one of the few people on the planet he was in awe of, not because she was superwoman, but because of the whole package. So honest with herself; so true to her core values even in the middle of the most duplicitous organization in the world, and beyond courageous. He'd lost count of the times he'd warned her off, but she'd gone rogue and done what was right anyway, including the most recent rescue of Eyal.

Rogue. He knew the whispers about them being the Rogue Couple, and then Joan said it out loud. How the office gossiped about Joan coming in to find the two of them staring at his monitor, almost in a mind meld as they worked out the answers to the radioactive substance origin. Annie told him later Joan just looked at them completely perplexed about what to do about their honest efforts to do the right thing in the face of politically motivated orders to the contrary. She had just walked out again without saying a word. That hadn't gone unnoticed. Going off book or outside protocol without being punished beyond a good talking too, which they and Joan knew wasn't going to do any good, was noticed too. Annie and he were soul mates; he felt a connection at a much deeper level than with any other human he'd ever met, including his brothers. They didn't go rogue with respect to the goals of the Agency, or the Agency's mission, or the country; they were only rogue with respect to the expectations of those who put political correctness, self, or career ahead of doing the right thing.

He sighed and instantly regretted it because she stirred, stretched a little and settled back comfortable against him. His arm moved to lightly touch and see her face since he knew she was awake. After he had taken his morning look at her, she flipped over and curled up against him with her head on his chest.

They stayed that way for a few minutes before she said, "Good morning, sweetheart. It's 7:02 and sunny. I absolutely love waking up next to you like this. I think being able to smell you keeps the bad dreams away. It makes me feel safe."

Auggie thoroughly enjoyed the sweet good morning kiss that followed that statement. Then he felt her move and figured that was the end of the preamble, and it was.

She continued, "I'll ask Uncle Fred if he will take the car and get it filled up with premium. I'll give him some cash to pay for the gas. No credit cards."

She paused, Auggie waited while she collected her thoughts, and then listened as she continued, "I think we should wait till about nine o'clock when commuter traffic will be almost over, and then head south. That should be the period of lightest traffic on a work day morning."

"You think they have commuter traffic?"

"It won't be a car count like DC, not even 1% of it, but these are not DC roads either. Some of these streets would be tight for a pair of buggies. It wouldn't take much to clog them up, and with all the truck traffic here, the local version of commuter traffic could cause a little grid lock, and I don't want to be sitting there with people hollering at us because they've figured out who we are. There was apparently only one picture of me that escaped, but quite a few people saw me up close and personal after I shot those guys. They may not know our names, but they know what we look like."

"Got it."

"I'm going to suggest we stay off the interstate and take country roads till we are south of the state line into Maryland. We have lots of time; it's only a bit over a hundred miles as I recall. I definitely want to make it all the way and get the car into storage yet today, sooner is better. I don't think anybody will associate the crazy blonde with a gun and the car, but there is no sense in pushing it either. Plus, we don't know if the FBI actually managed to round up all the rest of the cell or if some are still out and about with an attitude."

Auggie sighed, nodded, and pulled her gently closer. She turned her head up for a second kiss and then slipped out of bed. Auggie tried looking disappointed, but she wasn't having any of it and said, "Time for that later. It's already seven-fifteen. Let's get this show on the road. I know Barb is going to have breakfast plans, and I would much rather eat breakfast here than from a Mickey D's drive through. We can be nearly home or all the way home before we will need lunch. I'm not going more than five over though; I do not want a ticket."

Twenty minutes later they were both at the dinette table with Colonel Abbott. They sipped their coffee while Barbara Abbott both joined the conversation and made breakfast. Annie had tried to help but Barbara said, "I'm so used to this kitchen, and it isn't very big, so please let me wait on you."

Annie and Auggie told the Abbotts they planned to leave between nine and ten to both take advantage of what they thought would be the least chance of being seen and to make sure they were back in time to get the car into storage.

At one point Barb looked closely at Annie for a few seconds and said, "Looks like you got a decent sleep, right?"

"Yes, I did. The warm milk switched me right off and that mattress is wonderful. The neighborhood is really quiet, and Auggie kept me from being afraid. We are so grateful to you for having us over. We'd have been really stuck otherwise."

"We would really enjoy it if you come back up to visit. If you timed your visit to be here with Betsy and her family it would be even better. But we'll welcome you with open arms whenever you get here. We have three empty bedrooms and just love it when they are filled by friends and family, and you two are sort of both in a way."

Auggie replied, "We'd love to. Not sure what our schedule is. It will probably be several months before we are cleared to come back this way, but when we can, we will. And I know Annie and I will visit your daughter's family before that."

The rest of breakfast went by quickly with good food, and good conversation that avoided yesterday's mess. Auggie did ask that they turn on the news for a few minutes and wondered if Colonel Abbott would be willing to bring back a couple of papers for Annie to glance at before they left when he made the trip for gas. He would, and he did.

As Annie read him the front page articles about Anonymous Woman Hero Takes Down Terrorists, Averts Tragedy, Auggie got a little nervous. He asked Annie if there were any pictures. She said, "Yes. One blurry black and white one that shows my gun and the back of my head; but that's it."

Auggie said, "I think the sooner we get home the better."

Annie agreed.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN:** This is a re-write of the story to make it consistant with taking place a few months after the Season 3 finale.

I own nothing. Write this for fun.

**Chapter 6 - Middle Of Nowhere**

An hour-and-a-half later, with their good-byes done, the gas tank full of premium (ouch), thanks to the colonel taking the car to the station, and having survived another round of Barb's energetic hugs, they backed out the driveway and waved as Annie turned in the direction of the 34 South out of Carlisle. Her plan was to take the 15 past Gettysburg to join Interstate 270 near Fredrick, Maryland. She had dressed with a different color shirt and vest; put her hair into a firmly tightened scarf and added sunglasses, so she looked quite different from yesterday, just in case. She was ready for a completely boring drive home. Well, as boring as a road trip in a hot car with her hot boyfriend could be. She smiled to herself.

Annie happened to glance his way and saw Auggie sigh with a relaxed smile on his face. She reached out and touched his hand briefly between gears. Her eyes back on the road ahead, she heard him say, "Those are genuine good people. I'm really glad we ran into Colonel Abbott at the car show. That worked out well in so many ways. Plus, now we have someone to visit in Carlisle. Annie, we have non-work friends other than your sister. I like that. I like it a lot. It just feels good."

Annie said, "Auggie, you are right on. I love them to pieces. I can't wait to go see Betsy and her husband. I can't imagine you not liking Betsy."

Annie heard Auggie make a small noise and out of the corner of her eye, saw him move a little, but it wasn't a position shift; it was Auggie's trademark way of telling himself he'd decided something. She wondered what and toyed with leaving it alone, but she finally decided to give him a chance to share.

She looked his way and asked, "Whatcha thinking, sweetheart? Enjoying the morning?"

"Yes, I am. Sometimes, when we're together, we get a few moments of blissful peace in the storm. Right now is one of those; I'm cherishing the moment. The wind in my hair, on the way home with the most incredible one in a gazillion woman I've ever known, and she's my girlfriend, my lover, the incredibly hot love of my life. It feels so good to be me right now. Honey, right at this moment I couldn't be better if I tried."

"I couldn't either. I love you, Auggie. I'm loving this too." She saw him move his head slightly to cast his eyes in her direction with a very content and happy look on his face. He reached out, touched her, to see her, then visibly relaxed and settled back in his seat.

For the next ten minutes Annie went through a rather elaborate routine to see if they were being followed. By the time she was done, she was certain they weren't being followed. She glanced toward Auggie, who undoubtedly knew what she had been doing, and announced, "We're clear, no tail. It's time to make miles toward home." With a second glance in his direction, she saw him nod, still relaxed.

That bit of good practice out of the way, Annie went back to thinking about the route they were taking. The downside of the route was how much of it was through Maryland where she couldn't legally carry a gun, but there was no reasonable route for which her permits were valid. It could be done, but, good grief, it would more than double the trip. She had the slick little SIG P238 in her purse but planned to put that in the trunk safe unloaded to comply with federal law just before crossing the Pennsylvania state line. She didn't want to. In the back of her mind, trained to consider contingencies and what if situations continuously while on a mission, she wondered if the FBI was certain they had all the members of that cell in custody.

She wished Joan could get her some sort of federal off-duty permit that would allow her to carry when they were on the road like this, but she hadn't really asked for one either. Or even if such a thing was possible. She decided, because she'd begun to feel almost naked without a gun, for good reason, that she'd at least bring it up. _Maybe there was some way that could be done through the FBI? Rossabi had sounded sincere with his apology, but that was just him, not the whole agency, so good luck with a permit as a favor. Timing is everything. Maybe if I ask at the right time it would help? Oh well, a girl could dream, right?_

Google had said the trip was 105 miles and would take two hours more or less. The GPS said they should be back in DC at eleven forty-three. She translated that in her head to be between noon and one o'clock depending on if they stopped for lunch along the way, and how many coffee breaks she took. That would be good.

Knowing the cell had been taken down, but not having read the report to know why they thought all the members were in custody, she asked Auggie to call in their time of departure, route, and projected time of arrival as a matter of precautionary due diligence.

###

Just as he got his phone out, her secure phone rang. It was Joan with Agent Rossabi, both of them on the encrypted line on a conference call. Joan said, "Annie, Agent Rossabi has some news for us. Agent Rossabi."

Annie put the phone on speaker for Auggie to hear and slowed down looking for a place to pull off, then thought better of it and resumed driving along at the 35mph speed limit through what the GPS on the dash said was Mt. Holly Springs.

"Ms. Walker, we have confirmed there are two members of that cell that were not taken into custody because they were not present at the compound. Where are you now?"

"Just left Carlisle a few minutes ago heading south on the 34 passing through Mount Holly Springs. Projected route is 34 South through Gettysburg to join the 15 South into Maryland, pick up 270 South near Fredrick and continue on to Georgetown."

"I will arrange for an escort to pick you up probably some place around Gettysburg, I'll get back to you with the details."

"Agent Rossabi?" Annie asked sounding tentative.

"Yes," he answered.

She replied, "I don't know if this is even possible, but I have to ask. Can you make it legal for me to concealed carry my gun through Maryland? I'm officially off duty. I have it back; you know I'm competent with it. If you can do that, I'm fine with us being our own escort. I would appreciate an alert to the State Police here and in Maryland just in case we need them. And if there is a chopper in the air for some reason not too far from us, it wouldn't be a bad thing if it had an extra trooper or two on it."

Annie was a little surprised and relieved to hear Rossabi reply, "Let me see what I can do. I think we've done something about a permit like you would need before. That time it was a civilian, but give me a minute to make a call. I need to put you on mute here."

"Thanks. Joan, you there?"

"Yes."

With some trepidation because she hadn't broached the permit thing with Joan first, Annie asked, "You okay with this? Me having the gun on me off duty?"

"Yes. We can add this to the growing list of things we need to talk about, okay?"

"Thanks. Yes. I'd definitely like to talk about it." She paused and when Joan didn't interject continued, "We aren't being followed, I did everything but beam up to the moon and back on the way out of Carlisle and nobody followed me. We are headed into Pennsylvania farm country on a two lane blacktop country road. If this isn't the middle of nowhere, it's within a hundred yards of it. Avoiding Amish buggies seems to be the biggest problem. We didn't even go to a gas station; Colonel Abbott did that for us. I'm wearing a scarf to hide my hair, sun glasses and different color clothes. We should be fine on the road. I'm more worried about after we get back. What do you think the chances are that the two on the loose were in the parking lot and that they have pictures of us?"

"Your intuition is serves you well. What you don't know, that supports your concern, is that there was no vehicle left over in the restaurant parking lot after everybody was gone. Nothing they could have driven to the restaurant in. So their car, the one you saw them taking the shotguns out of, must have been taken away by somebody. Our current hypothesis is: the most likely person to have done that is one or both of the two we haven't located," Joan replied.

"Or a third person nobody knows about."

"Or a third person," Joan agreed.

"How could they segregate us from the others that were there?" Annie wondered. "The restaurant was pretty crowded."

"If they monitored the lot with a video camera on, they would have footage of everybody in and out. You and Auggie included. If they stuck it out, or were afraid of leaving in the aftermath, they might put two and two together when I drove your car out of the lot. Rossabi and I getting in would be noticeably different from you and the blind man who entered the restaurant. They wouldn't know where we went because at that point they wouldn't have had time to study the tapes in real time but they could have figured that out after the fact".

"Then it would be just dumb luck if they found us now," Annie concluded. She paused and then said, "Joan, I wonder if they could have access to the traffic camera footage? I saw cameras next to every traffic light. They would have really good coverage of the city. This corvette would be easy to track."

"I'll check into that, but it seems very unlikely. Based on the limited data we have, I think it's extremely unlikely they know where you are or where you are headed. That's why I'm good with you being your own escort if you can be armed. If not, I'd take Rossabi up on his offer of an escort and have them drive North at high speed to meet you rather than waiting in Gettysburg. Your car is easy to spot."

At that moment there was a click, some static, and then she heard Rossabi's voice, "Ms. Walker?"

"Yes."

"You are cleared to concealed carry in Maryland _and_ DC for the next 5 years - actually anywhere in the US and it territories, including Illinois and even on airplanes, as long as you are off duty. That said, using your civilian permits - SSA Burk told me about them - might raise less questions if they are valid at your location. Important, because you are CIA you need to be off duty. Which, by definition you are since you are on holiday, right?"

"Oh, absolutely!" Annie replied.

"All right, then. What I have is a verbal from the US Attorney, but he has agreed the permit is valid as soon as I tell you about it, which is now. The actual document is being printed as we speak. He'll sign it and give it to me in the next hour or so. I'll get it signed by a federal judge shortly after noon. I know the judge, and he's in his office today. Before I go further, Joan, he will have to be read in that Annie is CIA. It's not on the permit, but that fact, and her recent performance, is on the supporting paperwork as justification. Is that okay?"

"Yes. He doubtless knows her status is classified, but perhaps a gentle reminder is in order."

"Yes, he knows that. I picked him because he's been involved with us and the CIA before. Let's see … okay, Ms. Walker, I will send a photo of the signed permit form to your phone and text you a phone number for any law officer who questions it to call. We will send the paper work along with the laminated photo ID wallet card to you via official channels, probably late in the week. Joan, I'm assuming you can e-mail me a passport picture of Annie? In the next ten minutes or so?"

"Yes," Joan replied.

"That should take care of that."

A relieved Annie said, "Thanks Agent Rossabi, I owe you a big one." She'd been thinking of packing anyway, this was much better.

"Consider it a small down payment on what we owe you."

"Thanks anyway-"

Joan interjected, "Agent Rossabi, we have Annie's phone location on screen now based on GPS. We can track them; she's armed, capable, and used to being in the field under much more hostile conditions than these, so is Mr. Anderson. I think we are good for now. I will arrange a safe house for them to stay in till you have those two in custody."

"OK, I'll go with that. Supervisory Special Agent Burk has a couple of agents and a chopper at the diner where we were yesterday. They would be the closest support till you get close to the Maryland State Line. After that the HRT rapid response unit at Quantico is closer."

Annie replied, "Got it. Thanks. Agent Rossabi, is there any security footage of the restaurant parking lot? I didn't personally see anyone that looked out of place, but thinking back, there was a large white van parked in the back corner next to the building. It didn't look like a vehicle that would belong to a restaurant, and it wasn't parked where a customer would park. It might be nothing, or it might be where the other two set up to record their attack. There may be something in the news footage of the parking lot during the day that would tell us something. You might also scan the traffic cameras in Carlisle to see if that van left town on our same route this morning."

"Good thought - we have agents in the area doing follow up; I'll have them get us copies of the raw footage from the news crews. Traffic cameras footage can be used to track a suspect vehicle; the parking lot news crew footage is better for identifying the vehicle to track. Turns out downtown Carlisle has traffic cameras all over the place. They are brand new so most of them actually work, which is refreshing."

"Thanks. One more thing. Agent Rossabi, can you arrange for protection for Colonel and Ms. Abbott till you catch these guys? As you know, we stayed there last night. If the terrorists figure out what car we were driving they might somehow determine our car drove there and try to squeeze our route out of them."

"How would they do that?"

"I'll be sure to ask them if I get the chance," she said letting a little irritation into her voice.

"Okay! Okay, down girl. I'm on it, give me a minute, be right back."

"Joan?"

"Yes."

"Is there some way you can arrange for someone to keep an eye on my sister's house in California and my apartment in Georgetown?"

Joan assured her by replying, "I arranged for that yesterday while I was at the restaurant. Should have told you. They've had someone on them full time since about an hour after the event, just in case. So far nobody and nothing suspicious. I'll keep them on it till the other two are captured."

Agent Rossabi returned to the conversation saying, "I spoke to Colonel Watt, who you met yesterday. He has a State Trooper on the way there now. I asked for Benson, and it turns out he's on patrol about 5 miles away, and Colonel Abbott has met him. Meanwhile I'll arrange for the Federal Marshall's office to put someone in the house till we get these guys in custody. We good?"

Joan, sounding to Annie like she wanted to be done with this, said, "Okay, we are good. Thanks Agent Rossabi. We'll be in touch and looking for Annie's permit card. Annie, see you and Auggie Thursday."

The call ended. Annie looked over to see Auggie concentrating. She waited.

###

"Annie," he said "I think there is some chance they have figured out where we are headed. Just in case, how about we pull off, you get your Glock out of the trunk and put it on with that custom Versa Max holster you have and put your spare magazine in your vest pocket? You can wear that in the car, pistol at three, with the vest you have on, right? The little SIG is great up close, but not the best for an ambush on the road. Out in the country side where we are now, I'd rather have an M4, truth be told, but the baby Glock is the best available at the moment."

She chuckled at the mention of an M4. She had liked the times she got to practice with it at Frank's, but there was no chance of having one of those here. In Iraq, which was where she was headed when she asked Frank about a chance to practice with weapons she might encounter, it would have been a different matter altogether.

When it came to long guns, the bolt action sniper rifles were fun. She'd enjoyed her somewhat limited training with them just because of how good it felt to finally be able to shoot Frank-Groups that had him nod with approval. A Frank-Group, which she'd come to call an FG, was fired by taking one shot each at 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 meters. The scope was adjusted for elevation between each shot using a table taped to the rifle stock. Windage was compensated by holding off to make the estimated correction at each distance. The estimated hold off as a function of wind was on the table as well. She liked the Tactical Milling Reticule but did fine without it too. Letting the rifle cool for 20 minutes between groups of 5 shots, the same routine was repeated a total of 5 times. The goal was to have all the groups at their respective ranges be within a minute of arc between the two holes farthest apart. After considerable practice, she'd managed to be able to do it pretty much as a matter of routine on the range and had a favorite long range rifle, which prompted her to say, "I'd go for an Accuracy International sniper rifle in three hundred Win. Mag. with a nice NightForce scope on it like Frank trained me with. This definitely looks like rifle country out here, but it would be a bit hard to conceal. We couldn't even fit it in this trunk if it was assembled. But, yes, I agree, I should have the Glock where I can get at it. I'll just button the bottom button of the vest when I get out so a gust of wind won't blow the vest back exposing it, and I should be fine."

"Keep the SIG in your purse as a backup?"

"Yes, I'll take care of that right now. I see a place to pull off into a parking lot ahead on the right. It used to be a tile factory of some sort according to the faded sign. It's sort of overgrown, but there is an empty parking lot in front of it. It's apparently abandoned at the moment; I already reloaded the magazine when I swapped the Glock for the SIG. I will put a plus one in the chamber though. I wish I had brought the 19 with me. Oh well. As they say at the races, you run what you brung."

Annie pulled off the road into the abandoned parking lot. She drove in a circle, which turned the car around so that the trunk, and what she might do back there, was hidden from the view of highway traffic. It was faced at an angle back toward the entrance so she could see where she came from, which was also the most likely avenue of attack, just by glancing up from what she was doing in the trunk. Still, she felt exposed.

Determined to be out of there as soon as possible, she exited the car, keys in hand, stepped around to the trunk and opened it. She found the VersaMax holster, loosened her belt, slid it in her waistband at her right hip, snapped the belt loops around the belt, and re-tightened the belt. She opened the safe and retrieved the Glock 26 and a full magazine. She palm slapped the magazine into the grip of the pistol, did a quick sling shot of the slide to chamber a round, dropped the magazine out, added a round to make up for the one that was now in the chamber and palm slapped it back in. Her trigger finger drifted up over the extractor, she felt it protrud slightly which confirmed there was a round in the chamber. Double checking as usual, she also glanced at the tiny gap between the barrel and the breech face and could see the nickel plating on the casing of the chambered round. Satisfied, she slid the pistol into her holster.

She retrieved the spare magazine from the safe, double checked the counter holes along the spare magazine's spine to make sure it was full and blew a bit of lint off the top round before putting in her left vest pocket.

She shook herself and rocked the holster a little to get it to settle into its proper position on her hip. It sure felt good. She recalled how Frank had called in a favor with Milt Sparks the holster maker, and had gotten one made to her measurements that fit her just right. The grip didn't angle in over her hip and bang her in the ribs, but it didn't stick out either. It had been made to accommodate the curve of her hips and still be concealable under a vest, un-tucked long sleeve shirt, or sweatshirt. And it was oh so comfortable compared to carrying at five o'clock, especially when sitting on a car seat for a couple of hours. The same holster worked for both her Glock 19 and her Glock 26.

It had been delivered in three weeks - which was impossible but it happened. Six months was more common. It was very comfortable but not really good enough for restaurant wear unless she had on a sweatshirt or sweater. She'd make it work now, though, to have the extra firepower without the gun beating on her kidney like it would in the other holster. She figured the odds of them being located were pretty slim, but if it was going to happen, it would happen today, because they would be inaccessible after they got to the safe house. The pony in the pile was it was clear to her that Joan would put them in the same safe house. That caused her to grin for a second.

Still behind the car, Annie picked up her phone and called the Abbott's residence. Barb answered. She got the Colonel for Annie who confirmed she and Auggie were okay and explained about the two loose cell members. Then she told Barbara and the colonel to lock the doors and windows, get out their guns, and expect Trooper Benson to show up. She followed with the information that the FBI would be sending a Federal Marshall to watch over them till the two were caught. That apparently alarmed Barb who asked, "How long might that be?"

"I don't know. But they are also putting Auggie and me in a safe house till they are caught. I figured you would rather be at home with the marshal than in a safe house."

"Do we have a choice?"

"Yes, but I'd much rather you did this than turn down the protection. As you can tell from what they attempted yesterday, these guys are deadly serious, and they take it personally when they are stopped from completing a mission. Especially by a female. The news said it was a female, and I whacked them down hard."

Colonel Abbott came back on and said, "No worries, Annie; we will comply with whatever they ask. I just hope this doesn't drag on for months."

"It shouldn't, but I have no idea how long it will be. The FBI has a real manhunt on for them, and they have pictures of them. In fact, I'll arrange for pictures of them to be sent to you."

"Okay Annie, Thanks for the heads up. Have a safe trip."

"We will. Bye."

Annie closed the trunk, made her way back to the driver's seat, settled in and fastened her seatbelt. She relaxed back into the seat, and sighed when it occurred to her, _we aren't even to Gettysburg and it's already more exciting than I'd like. _Remembering her thoughts about the sniper rifle prompted her to say, "If we do encounter them, I'm going to have to find a way to get within 10 to 15 yards of them to feel like I have an acceptable chance with this baby Glock. Frank said if they are farther away than that to run like hell."

Auggie reached over and touched her saying, "If you see them, take advantage of your well-known, best ever for a woman, escape and evasion driving skills in this pretty fast car. Yes, I read your training file before I ever met you the first time. They were very complementary about your escape and evasion driving skills. Seriously, unless we wreck or the car breaks, we have the advantage. If we are stopped, we need a big advantage before we should take them on – like they need to have wrecked and be incapacitated. I'm no help if they are beyond arms reach, which they almost certainly will be."

Annie picked up the undertones of bitterness in his voice; they prompted her to reply, "Auggie, just by being here you are good for me. Trust me on this, we are a team. If those home grown wannabe jihadists show up, we'll know what to do. Besides, how would they have any clue where to find us?"

###

Still in the spirit of their conversation, a few seconds after she pulled back onto 34 South and was up to her cruising speed of five over the 45 mph speed limit, Annie asked Auggie to call his tech guys and make sure they had her phone on their tracking display. She told him, "We need them on the phone if we get into a situation where we have to lose a pursuit. I don't know the roads here, and while we have a great car, I want them to be able to give me guidance on what to expect the road to do when I come over a hill onto a blind corner at hundred plus. I'd also like them to help me figure out the most likely places to cause them to crash. I agree, our best chance is if they are wrecked and disoriented. Evasion and escape that leaves them out there to come after us again is not very appealing to me. In fact, if Stu could track us and keep the evasion software up and ready, at least till we get to 270 South, that would be really good."

"Got it. I'm dialing."

Annie looked over the gages and noted with relief everything looked normal. _Heck, they probably won't find us, but we are as prepared as we can be if they do._

She heard Auggie say, "Stu? Auggie, do you have us located? ... Good. Please bring up the pursuit software and get Barber to look over your shoulder. What? Annie, how fast are we going?"

"Fifty."

"We are going fifty, Stu. Your tracker matches? Good. I want you to track us with current pursuit evasion options updated continuously on the screen till we are safely on Interstate 270 South. ... We're driving my Corvette. Yeah, the performance model is in the database, I put it in myself. Look under sixty-seven Corvette roadster. ... Yes, that's it, 435 horsepower. ... What? ... Annie's driving, use the highest performance setting. ... Okay, I'm going to keep this connection live till we get to Interstate 270 with the phone on mute. ... Yes, trust me; you will be the third to know if anybody shows up behind us."

"You followed that, Walker?"

"Yup."

They settled down and enjoyed the drive through the Pennsylvania country side. Annie occasionally narrated what she saw. There was a field full of fresh cut alfalfa that smelled really good as they passed it, at least that's what she thought it was. Auggie confirmed it.

A few miles later, as they approached a rise between two apple orchards, Annie saw what she thought might be the white van from the parking lot yesterday approaching faster than normal traffic would, especially since she had been going five over all along. She wasn't sure, white vans all look pretty much alike in the rear view mirror, but it was the right make, Ford, and she didn't want to take a chance.

She said to Auggie, "I see a white Ford van gaining on us in the mirror. I think they may have found us. Get Stu up on line, on speaker, turn the volume all the way up, brace yourself and see if you can hold it where I can talk to Stu hands off with a hell of a lot of wind noise. The GPS says we are approaching Quaker Valley Road. It looks like there are several roads networked together over to the right. I'm going to make a hard right onto it – if the van follows, _it's on_. Tell Stu to see if I have any good options for causing that big white whale to crash if it follows us."

She was so glad they had the benefit of the pursuit software and Stu. It would track their progress, speed, and predict speeds for turns based on a performance model of the Corvette they were in. She hadn't had to take advantage of it before, but this seemed like a good time to see if it worked.

In full mission lock on, Annie flicked the Corvette into second gear and stood on it just short of wheel spin. The car lunged ahead, rocked Auggie back in his seat, picked up speed to nearly 100 mph as she worked through the gears shifting as the tach reached the redline. She felt it get light as they crested the hill before the Quaker Valley Road junction, kept the wheel straight with a light touch and let it settle back onto its wheels. She modulated the pressure on the brake pedal to match the tire load as the car settled into the dip and prevent lockup. She achieved maximum deceleration that pitched them against the belts as the car settled down from the near launch. At the same time she heel toe shifted back down one gear, then two gears to take advantage of the suspension loading, verified no oncoming traffic, veered to the left side of the road as the downgrade pulled to level, eased the brakes to settle the car, then cranked it into the corner.

There was a little gravel on the corner; she compensated for the car's under steer by kicking the back end out with the throttle to power slide through the turn - the tires howled in protest. The car rocked violently as it slid from gravel to asphalt and back; then she was through the turn, aligned with the left edge of the pavement, foot to the floor on Quaker Valley road. She accelerated hard through the gears and moved to the center of the road before she saw the van clear the rise in the mirror.

Annie sat up straight, with her arms straight out on the wheel and her eyes wide open. She focused on keeping the car in the center of the asphalt country road while she looked as far ahead as she could to check for slow farm traffic or Amish buggies. Her mind registered the lack of shoulder, the rare tree, and the regularly spaced power poles as they flashed by. They were well passed 100 again on what the GPS depicted as a reasonably straight road when Stu came on the phone. A quick flick of her eyes showed her that Auggie held the phone braced against her seat near her ear. It was clamped in a white-knuckled, left-handed grip that only loss of consciousness was likely to release. He held onto the car with his right hand and had pressed his head back into the headrest, presumably by bracing his feet against the firewall.

"Annie can you hear me?"

"Yes, Stu."

"You have an 80 mph left next ahead of you"

"Got it," She saw the turn, eased as far to the right as she could, lifted, used the brakes to settle the car on its suspension and bring down the speed a little. She depended on the under steer, turned early for the apex, let the increased tire friction scrub speed off the car just enough to get past the apex, pointed at the exit and then began to feed the gas back in. Her right foot controlled the rear end. It took the whole road but because she had a delicate touch with the controls, the car held nicely. She was glad the road was reasonably smooth with the live axle rear suspension. She eased back into the middle of the road, foot back on the floor, gave a quick glance in the rear view mirror, no van in sight yet. A few second later, just as she saw it behind them, Stu announced the next curve.

"90 mph right in about a third of a mile."

"Got it." Another quick flick of her eyes picked up the van in the mirror, then ahead to confirm no traffic. All clear, She focused on the corner. She eased to the left edge of the pavement, lifted a little, again feathered the brakes to settle the suspension, turned in early and again let the tire friction of the corner do her braking to the apex with slightly more throttle on this exit to move the back end over. Then she was aligned with the left edge of the road and put her right foot down hard.

"Pretty much full throttle allowing for traffic with a 140 mile per hour left as you approach the rise before you get to Bear Mountain Road. The turn onto Bear Mountain Road is a ninety degree hard right, says 35 mph on the screen, with a fifteen foot bank off the road to a creek and a pond of some sort. It's a blind corner over the rise, but the model says you can get over the top in the right lane with your tail lights just out of the van's view before you hit the brakes and move left if you lift and down shift before the top of the rise. I'll let you know-"

"Got it. Drown the bastards," Annie said with fierce determination as she guided the car down the middle of the road at some speed over 100 mph – the engine was roaring near max revs in 4th, it wouldn't go any faster. She didn't need to look at the speedometer. Auggie was saying nothing - she assumed he was still holding on for dear life focused on keeping the phone where she could hear it.

"If he makes it around the corner, you are on a triangle shaped four mile loop that will give you another great chance to dump them in about two miles. Ok, you are almost to the rise …. LIFT AND SHIFT!"

Annie felt herself pulled down into the seat as the car traveled over a hundred and loaded the suspension to the stops as it transitioned from level to the upslope of the rise on a road designed for 45mph. She lifted completely off the gas as the suspension loaded nearly to the stops at the bottom of the rise. The deceleration made the car feel less stable; it got worse when the car topped the rise nearly leaving the ground. She kept the wheel steady to avoid side load on the tires with almost no traction. Then the car began to settle as it arced over the top of the rise. She took a quick glance in the mirror and determined the van was quite a ways back now not able to keep up with the Corvette. She waited till it was out of sight in the rear view mirror before she got on the brakes. She knew this was going to be right on the ragged edge one way or the other. She controlled the brakes expertly as a function of suspension loading and brought them right to the edge of locking up (benefits of ice racing in Sweden as a teenager), heel toe down shifted to match until she was in first gear. At the last possible moment she initiated a weave that carried the car to the left edge of the asphalt dragged off more speed and preloaded the left suspension for the hard turn into the corner. At that moment, almost too late, she wrenched the wheel right so she compensated for the under steer and then blipped the throttle as the car rocked, slid on the gravel, the tires caught, howled and grabbed. The car rocked violently with the shocks struggling to control the wheel hop. She barely moved the wheel and steered with her right foot on the throttle. She waited and resisted overcorrecting while the car settled out of the slide and was rewarded with the car being aligned with the road right at the edge of the asphalt and balanced enough that she could feed the throttle to the floor just short of wheel spin. She was able to accelerate hard through the gears. The car picked up speed very quickly as she accelerated away from the corner and was around the next corner almost out of sight when she looked up and saw the van in her mirror off the road rolling towards the pond.

In an instant reflex she hit the brakes hard, downshifted and flicked the 'Vette into a bootlegger turn just like they taught her at the farm. She had it recovered accelerating in the other direction through the cloud of burnt rubber smelling tire smoke a few seconds later. She accelerated at full throttle back the way they had come, kept a firm grip on the wheel and eased the car to the center of the road. She was back up to 100. She could feel she'd flat spotted the tires a little but she had this under control now. Well, almost - she had to get back before they got out of the van to take them down. She knew she was outnumbered and probably out gunned. She needed the advantage of being in position to ambush them when they emerged, hopefully injured, confused and disoriented. She calculated she had about a minute to get in position. She needed to stop without calling attention to her arrival.

A half mile out she shifted to neutral, smoothly decelerated to a stop still on the asphalt to avoid the noise of the gravel on the shoulder. She switched the engine off as they passed through 40 and slowed down. With any luck they wouldn't think she would come back. She stopped with the car in first gear to hold it in position. She had chosen a location where she'd have an approach to the blind spot on the van with Auggie able to hide behind the mass of the engine block. As she opened the door and jumped out she drew the Glock and said, "Auggie, get out and crouch down by the left front wheel."

He immediately opened his door. Satisfied that he would be safe, she headed around the front of the car and down the bank toward the van at a dead run. The Glock was in her right hand just as she heard Joan come on the phone, probably to tell her to wait for backup. _Yeah, right. Screw that!_ She _had_ these guys, and they were damn sure not going to get away this time.

She heard Auggie say something but ignored it and focused only on getting within ten yards of the van as fast as her legs would carry her.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN:** This is a re-write of the story to make it consistant with taking place a few months after the Season 3 finale.

I own nothing. Write this for fun.

**Chapter 7 - One More Before Lunch**.

Annie studied the scene as she sprinted down the bank toward the van. She saw the van had rolled toward the pond and come to rest on its right side. It was angled a little away from the road near the edge of the raised bank around the man-made pond. There was no sign of fire. It hadn't gone in the pond. It was close enough to the bank around the pond to work to her advantage.

She slowed once she was within ten yards of the van, made her way relatively silently but rapidly through the grass to what would be the van's top rear if it were upright. She squatted down out of sight from one direction but still able to see the 'Vette. She sat as quietly as she could, controlled her breathing with some difficulty, and listened. She heard muffled voices. She placed her ear against the sheet metal of the top - she heard one ... two ... distinct voices. Sounded like only two. Two she could believe; it was the expected number. One of them cursed the other in English because the rear door would not open. Their use of English was a relief because it was an indication they were the two fugitive members from Minnesota.

The bank around the pond was grassed. Not lawn, but not full of briers and thistles either. She decided she could lie down on the bank, although the grass was almost too tall for that. The water was low enough that she could kneel on the far side of the bank, have at least some cover, still be less than ten yards from the top of the van, and have a steadier shooting position than she would if standing. The van had only front driving compartment side windows. She stood up, moved rapidly at an angle away from the van up the berm, across the top and a step or two down the other side towards the water. She ended up at a patch of shorter grass about ten yards away and slightly below the level of the side of the van. She dropped to her knees, then lay down able to rest her arms over the top of the berm. It gave her a very steady position to shoot from aimed right at the most likely exit point – the driver's side window. A person who climbed out with his focus on the road would have his back to her. A person trying to shoot at her from there would only be able to see her head and arms in the grass. A camo hat would have been nicer than the pink scarf, but it was too late for that.

She could also, if she stretched a little, see anyone emerging from the front windshield, but it didn't look broken to her. She glanced at the Corvette and couldn't see Auggie, so she assumed he was crouched near the front wheel on the other side of the car from her. Her angle to the van put him well clear of her field of fire. Satisfied her position was the best immediately available option, she relaxed in her prone position with her gun in both hands. Less than ninety seconds after opening the car door she was as ready as she was going to be.

She didn't have to wait more than maybe another twenty seconds when an AK47 rose vertically, in somewhat wobbly fashion, through the driver's side door window and was laid crosswise pointing toward the road. She hoped that meant that whoever followed it would look that way too. A few seconds later, the owner of the hands lifted himself up with, apparently painful, difficulty into a sitting position on the van. He faced toward the road with Annie behind him and in his blind spot. He picked up the AK and began to scan in front of himself. He looked somewhat dazed and the muzzle wavered around more or less in his direction of sight. She brought her sights to align on his head; with her finger on the trigger, she shouted, "Drop it," to get his attention before he took a shot at the Corvette. The shout got his attention, and he turned his head towards her. She could see she was far enough behind him that it would be very difficult for him to get a shot.

It took him a few seconds to locate her, but when he saw her, the look on his face got ugly. He tried to raise the AK and make the awkward turn, almost a 180 degrees to his right, to aim at her at the same time. Pain or not, it was clear he was going to shoot first chance he had. Annie didn't hesitate and shot first, five shots almost as fast as she could pull the trigger. She aimed at the center of his face with the first pair, which would be the most accurate, and dropped to his torso with the other three as fast as she could pull the trigger. She saw the shots hit in real time: one in his head with blood and brain matter out the back and front, one through his neck with splatter in both directions, two on the right side of his torso under his arm with blood back spatter - no body armor – and one into his thigh area. The combined effect was that his hands released the AK. It fell off the van in Annie's direction to stick muzzle first into the soft ground and then slowly topple over. His body slumped and slid back into the van with a sort of soggy crashing noise, accompanied by a high pitched curse in what sounded like a child's voice.

She would learn later the first shot had obliterated his central nervous system and killed him instantly.

Given the young voice she heard and the fact that there was only one left, Annie decided to try for capture. She had good cover from blind shots through the top of the van, control of the only exit, and she thought the remaining occupant of the van might be thoroughly traumatized when his companion dropped back in, almost on top of him, stone dead and bloody. She shouted, "Federal Agent, show me your hands!" She decided if a gun came out she'd shoot through the roof of the van at where the person's body would have to be.

After a few seconds, she saw a surprisingly young looking pair of hands that might go with the voice extend up to just above the plane of the front door.

A young voice tinged with fear said, "I can't reach any farther."

"Grab the edge and pull yourself up," she shouted back. "If I see anything in those hands, I'll shoot first and find out what it was later. Come out empty handed, now!"

"Okay. Okay, don't shoot, please don't shoot!" the voice yelled back.

Out of the corner of her eye, Annie saw a pickup approach down Quaker Valley Road toward 34. She needed this guy on the ground under control before it arrived. She ordered, "Pull yourself up and get out here now!" He appeared, pulled himself up, bent over at the waist to wiggle onto the side of the van. Annie said, "Slide down over here."

When he did she had him lie on the ground face down with his arms straight out at his sides, palms up. She stood up with her gun still on the prone figure and yelled to Auggie, "Call backup, now!"

"Already talking to 911; trooper on the way. Are you okay, Annie?" His voice was raw with anxiety. "I heard five shots."

"I'm fine," she told him. "The shots were all mine. One dead and one captive – that's the lot of them."

"Thank God. … Good job." Annie heard the pause and knew Auggie was pushing his fear for her well being into the back of his mind to focus on the immediate problem. Sure enough, a few seconds later he added, "The State Police may have a chopper that can get here first. I asked for the fastest arrival. I identified you as the hero lady from the restaurant yesterday and gave them a description. Can I get back in the car?"

"Yes, I have the situation under control at the moment. Tell whoever you are in contact with that the incident is over; the fight is over."

Annie took a few seconds to study the second man as she approached; she confirmed her first impression. This was a kid or young adult, somewhere between 15 and maybe 18 years old. The bare arms looked like a child's: no developed musculature, an artist's hands and long slender fingers. His hair a bit scraggly but no there was no evidence of beard. She was glad she hadn't shot him, but that was pretty much the end of her compassion. Asked the right way, he'd probably tell the interrogators everything he knew. He looked more like a computer geek than a terrorist. If he was the geek, he might be the best intelligence coup in a while.

She looked back at the road and saw the pickup, probably seven to ten years old, well used but not beaten up looking, had stopped. Annie saw the driver look in her direction apparently uncertain about what to do. It seemed to her beyond extremely unlikely this guy was the enemy, so she decided to treat him as an ally. She called to him, "I'm a Federal Agent, this guy is a terrorist in cahoots with the two at the restaurant in Carlisle yesterday. I need something to tie him up. You got anything?"

Annie watched as the farmer slowly got out of the truck. He looked confused, like he hadn't quite gotten his mind around the situation. Then, apparently he decided to help because he said, "I got me some bail twine; I reckon that'll work." He reached into the back of the truck and headed her way with it. As he approached, she looked him over. What she saw were alert, intelligent eyes in a weatherworn face, big hands and wrists, hat, and a curious expression.

She liked what she saw; there was character in those eyes and face. It was an honest character that came from a lifetime faced with the un-spinable reality of crops, animals, and weather that was life on a farm. She asked quietly, "Will you please tie him up; put his hands behind him and secure his feet together, and then sit him up against the front of the van so he can be seen from the road. Use short pieces of that string. Tie the ends in a hard knot. No need to be gentle, just don't cut off the blood flow. The state troopers will be here, hopefully sooner than later."

He said, "I will." And he did. Then he slowly stood up and backed away a few yards. The young man said nothing during the process.

"Thank you."

He nodded and stood where he was. He was relaxed. Annie felt no threat from him.

She yelled to Auggie, "Auggie, you can get back in the car now; it's all clear." She heard him acknowledge her and then saw him get up and head back around the car to the passenger's side.

Just then the farmer tilted his head and said, "Sooner, I think I hear a chopper headed this way."

Annie couldn't hear it. Her ears were still deadened from to the noise of the shots, but she looked up and called to Auggie, "Do we have a chopper inbound?"

He held up his hand with the phone to his ear and yelled back, "Yes, I'm talking them in - they see us, the van anyway."

The farmer looked across the road and yelled in Auggie's direction, "Have them set down in that hay field on the other side of the road there. If they set down on this side, they will have trouble with this bank and the soft ground nearer the pond."

Auggie yelled back, "Thanks, will do." Then the ambient noise temporarily wiped out any chance of communication with Auggie.

Annie saw the chopper's course deviate as the pilot changed his approach. She saw dust rising off the shoulder near the Vette. The rotor blast wasn't so bad where she was because the road bank was between them and the chopper. It dropped to where Annie could see the State Police logo on the side before it went out of sight on the other side of the road.

Annie finally took a second to double check the man that remained in the van and saw he was well and truly dead with a big chunk of the back of his head missing. She had learned yesterday that COR-BON DPX +P hollow points did that. She felt nothing looking at him now, but she knew she would later.

The kid tied up in front of the van stared vacantly at the ground a few feet in front of him. Annie didn't feel like questioning him.

She asked the farmer if he would go and guide her partner over to where she was. He looked at her questioningly, and she said, "He's blind." The farmer nodded and headed for the Corvette. Annie saw that he and three state troopers arrived there at the same time. There was some sort of conversation between the troopers, the farmer, and Auggie. The troopers didn't look stressed, but they kept both hands free.

The troopers headed her way; the farmer, responding to Annie's instructions, walked Auggie over. She had put her Glock back in its holster when the chopper disappeared behind the bank. In her hand it would cause the officers to react; she simply didn't need it to contain the tied up guy. So she walked relaxed but open handed to meet the troopers.

She said, "I'm Annie Walker. That's my partner, August Anderson. These two initiated a pursuit of us because I shot their fellow terrorists in the restaurant in Carlisle yesterday. If you will call the FBI Philly office, they will tell you what to do. Because these two are terrorists, they will be in federal custody. Well, the living one will be anyway."

One of troopers came forward and said, "I'm Trooper Getz, these two are Williams and Walsh. What was the name of the Trooper in the restaurant yesterday?"

Annie said, "Trooper Benson. 6'-3", 220, Caucasian, brown, brown, quiet spoken, no glasses."

Annie saw Getz shoulders relax and drop a little; he said, "You are _her?_ The shooter?_"_

"Yes, but when the feds get here, they will tell you to take no pictures and tell no one my name, or the name of my partner."

"Benson said he saw you and even _talked_ to you. He wouldn't describe you, just said you were a really hot, really dangerous, little blonde Rambo." When Annie didn't reply other than to reflect a bit of disgust at his comment, he asked, "Uh, yes, what happened here?"

"Do you have a recorder?"

"Not on me. We were not expecting to do this. We were on the way to a training exercise in Gettysburg when we got the call to respond here. Do you have a prisoner? I'm getting the impression there were two and one is dead."

"Yes. Follow me." She lead them back toward the van so they could see the young man tied up leaning against the front of the van and the dead guy through the window.

Getz went over to check the young man, gave a quick glance at the dead guy, stood up, turned and asked, "Please tell us what happened so we can call in with a preliminary Sit. Rep?"

"Okay – did the same thing for Benson yesterday. I remembered seeing a white van in the restaurant parking lot yesterday. I was suspicious of it and told the FBI DC office about it by phone earlier today. When it showed up gaining on us, I took immediate evasive action by turning off 34 onto Old Quaker Road. When the van nearly ran off the road making the same turn to follow us, I knew we were being pursued and these folks met us harm. I had a clear advantage over them, so I took them down. I had a GPS in the Corvette-"

"You were driving that blue four twenty seven 'Vette?" he interrupted.

"Yes. That was my advantage. It allowed me to get in position to ambush them as they exited the van. I came over the top of that rise pretty fast, waited till the van wasn't visible in the rear view, hauled it down and barely made that corner - you can see the tire marks from the 'Vette there. I barely made it. I hoped the van would crash if they were foolish enough to try to follow me. They were, and it crashed right where you see it. After rounding the corner I headed down the road, over there behind the 'Vette, as fast as I could until I saw the van go off the road to end up here. So I turned, came back and ambushed them as they tried to climb out."

"You turned around and got back before they could get out? How'd you do _that_?"

"Yes. How? It was easy. If you go down there about as far as you can see, you will see the rubber marks from a bootlegger turn - it was hard on the tires, but it was the fastest way back."

"You threw a high speed bootlegger down the middle of this skinny little road with almost no shoulders and trees on both sides? How fast were you going?"

"Yes, and I'm not sure – probably not much more than eighty when I flicked the car into the bootlegger."

"_Not much more than 80?_ Wow! Okay, so you can both drive and shoot. What happened here?"

"I coasted the 'Vette to a stop in the middle of the road to avoid gravel crunch noises. Ran over here, knelt down and placed my ear against the roof. I heard two voices inside. I figured they would try to get out of the van so I got in position to ambush them.

"If you look on the pond side of the berm, right over there, you will find where I lay down and waited for them to exit the van, and probably the brass from when I shot them. The dead guy in there was the first one out. He came out that window and sat on the side of the van so he faced the road, weapon in hand. My partner was behind the car that was in his line of sight. He raised the rifle. I told him to 'drop it'. He immediately started to point that AK 47 in my direction. I fired 5 shots. Two at his head, two at his torso. He fell back inside after I shot him."

Annie stood still while the Troopers moved to get a better view of the body through the front window. Then she continued, "The kid, there, evidently didn't like the preview of coming attractions that fell back in on top of him and surrendered when I gave him a chance. I allowed him to climb out, and this gentleman; I don't know his name, brought me some bail twine and tied him up for me. We barely had that done when you landed. The young one here hasn't said anything since I restrained him. I'll let the FBI deal with him. I'm most interested in seeing what we can find in the van that might give us a clue how these guys found me on a country road in the middle of nowhere."

The trooper said, "Please just stand quietly right there for a moment with your hands where I can see them while I call this in." Annie nodded. He then keyed his shoulder microphone and said, "This is Trooper Getz; we have landed at the crash site. We have one person shot to death, one tied up with bale twine. Need the medical examiner, patrol cruiser backup, traffic control and a paramedic. This looks like self-defense to me. The dead guy had an AK47. She didn't shoot the second guy when he surrendered."

"Do you have the shooter in custody?"

"She's not in custody. She's standing here in front of me; she's the same lady that took down those two terrorists in Carlisle yesterday."

"Did you get an ID?"

"She says her name is Annie Walker. About 5'-5", blonde, brown. I haven't seen a photo ID, but when I asked who the Trooper was at the restaurant yesterday, she knew it was Benson on scene and described him to a T."

"Hold on a second."

The trooper looked at Annie. She stood there with her hands by her sides, relaxed.

Then dispatch came back on the radio saying, "We have confirmed her identity through the FBI. We are directed by the FBI that this is terrorism; they have jurisdiction, and she is in charge of the scene on their behalf till they get there. We haven't been given an explanation, just orders. You are not to attempt to restrain or disarm her, photograph her, or permit anybody to take pictures of her or her companion. Cooperate with her and her partner, who we are told is blind. If they want access to the inside of the van before they leave, help them achieve that. They are free to leave anytime after the FBI arrives to take charge of the scene and she gives them a statement of what happened."

"Roger, WILCO."

"Also take custody of the body; stay with it until it's turned over for transport to the FBI morgue in Quantico. Turn the prisoner over to the FBI, who we're told will be there in a few minutes. Apparently there were already some FBI Agents in Carlisle with a chopper, so they should arrive shortly. We suggested they land in the field near your aircraft based on the pilot's input."

"10-4."

The trooper paused for a few moments, apparently to process what he had heard. Then he looked up, turned in her direction and said, "Okay, wow. That's pretty much a list of all firsts for us. What do you need us to do?"

"Please open the back doors of the van."

"Ok. You heard the lady." Getz turned to the farmer and asked, "Do you have a pry bar of some sort?"

"Yup, in my truck. Follow me."

In short order they had the back doors of the van pried open. Two of them went up on the road to keep traffic moving, Getz brought Auggie over. Annie told him what she saw; he noted it. Then she said, "I have a laptop here, it's on."

The kid at the front of the van said, "That's mine. Leave it alone."

Auggie said to Annie, "Don't close it; keep it up by touching the space bar. I need to get that hard drive dumped to Tech Ops. If one of these Troopers will take me to the car with the laptop, I think I can at least get part of it. I found an open Wi-Fi with my iPhone."

Annie said so he could hear, "I think we've captured the Minnesota cell's geek. He's just a kid. If they do it right, the FBI ought to be able to get him to tell them all he knows. Plus, there might be some good intel on this laptop."

Auggie left with the laptop, the farmer as his sighted guide.

While Getz watched, Annie continued to look and found a small attaché case with a few papers in it. She laid them out, photographed them with her phone camera, turned them over and photographed them again because of the strange markings on the back.

She found two more AK47s and two more shotguns like the ones used in the diner. She photographed all their armament and their ammunition supply.

Then Annie took pictures of the rest of the van's interior: the VIN number, license plate, registration, proof of insurance, and whatever else she saw that might possibly be of interest. That included both the boy tied up in front and as much as she could of what was left of the face of the other guy.

She looked around, then ran up the berm around the pond and took a picture of where she had laid down to take her shot, and a second one lying in the same place to show the view she had of the van. While she was there, she turned a little to get a picture that showed the 'Vette and the van so she could have it for the report she knew would be requested.

She'd just gotten back to Getz, and the pictures uploaded to Stu, when she heard and then saw the FBI chopper descend to land across the road in the hay field near the State Police chopper.

A few minutes later, Annie watched as a young female agent accompanied by a male agent ran down the bank toward them. The male looked 5'-10", maybe 180 lbs. Nice navy blue pinstripe suit, white shirt, power tie. No glasses.

The female, dark hair, athletic build, something like 5'-8", solid but feminine, 135 to 140 pounds, was wearing a fitted but professional open-necked white blouse, suit pants, and remarkably sensible shoes for the outfit. Her face was striking: good-looking in a girl next door way, but not beautiful exactly. It was the grace and coordination evident in the way she moved that immediately got Annie's attention – a balanced forward and aft gait with an effortless stride that seemed to float over the ground. It showed a high level of coordination and fitness – this was a hard core martial arts expert in fighting condition, no doubt about it. The look on her face was one of friendly curiosity. She clearly didn't regard Annie as the enemy or with suspicion at all. But Annie made a mental note – if there is trouble, team with her; she's probably the toughest person in sight. She slowed with perfect balance to let the man in the suit, who was apparently the senior agent, catch up.

The male puffed, slightly winded, "I'm Special Agent Tom Larson; this is Special Agent Mary Jo Bell. We are from the Philadelphia office. You are Ms. Anne Walker? You were at the restaurant in Carlisle yesterday?"

"I am. I was. Please call me Annie. This is Trooper Getz. The two working to keep the road clear and traffic moving are Troopers Williams and Walsh." She paused a second then added, "This is your crime scene now, right?"

"Yes. Please call me, Jo. You met our boss, Supervisory Special Agemt Burke, yesterday." She turned to look at the van, and her face registered concern when she saw the body inside. "What happened here?"

Annie turned to Agent Larson and said, "I'd be happy to tell you. Do you have a recorder? We might as well just do this once."

"Yes."

"Please get it; I'll give you a statement about what happened. Then we need to get out of here before too many more civilians show up. I've already gone over the van. Our tech guys will send the pictures I uploaded to your tech guys. However they do that."

Agent Larson looked at Agent Bell; she said, "On it," and took off running effortlessly back up the bank in the direction of the chopper.

As Agent Bell was leaving, Annie noticed for the first time that the young man was bleeding from some cuts, probably crash related - she walked over, squatted down and looked at his eyes. She saw the different sized pupils and said, "This one has a concussion." She could hear a siren approaching in the distance; she hoped it would be the paramedics. Given a choice, she'd like to interrogate him, but at this point she was pretty certain that would be someone else's job.

She saw Auggie, guided by Trooper Walsh, on his way back with the laptop. When he arrived Annie asked, "Any luck?"

"Yes, got it all. There's an open Wi-Fi nearby. It is a strong signal, high data rate. Anyway, Stu was able to link in via the WEB and mirror the hard drive into storage. They have already started on it."

"Agent Larson, this is my partner August, AKA Auggie, Anderson. The laptop Auggie is talking about is the one we found in the van. You want to get it from Auggie?"

"Hi, Mr. Anderson," Agent Larson said, "Yes, I'll take that … thanks. If you have mirrored the drive can you have your guys, whoever they are, send a copy of the mirror to the Philly office?"

"I'll do that now," Auggie said. He took a few steps away and raised his phone to his ear.

At that moment Annie saw Agent Bell running back down the bank. When she arrived, she said, with no trace of breathlessness, "I brought the recorder and a spare memory chip if it's needed."

Agent Larson thanked her, exchanged the laptop for the recorder, went through the usual preamble to get the recording properly setup, then asked Annie formally, "Please tell us what happened?"

Annie dictated a clear concise narrative of the pursuit, how it ended, the takedown, the arrival of the farmer, troopers, and then the FBI.

When she had finished Agent Larson asked, "Where did you learn to do that?"

"Do what?" Annie asked.

"Execute a takedown like that. You give lessons?"

"Of course not. Don't give shooting or escape and evasion driving lessons either."

Larson laughed and said, "I had that coming. But it was an impressive performance none the less. Well done, Ms. Walker."

"Thanks," she replied. Annie decided she had to clear the air a bit so she said to Troopers Walsh and Getz, "I need a word alone with these agents. Excuse us please." Annie motioned the two FBI agents to come with her out of earshot of the farmer and the prisoner. Then she asked, "Agent Larson, what, exactly, did Agent Burk tell the both of you about us? Auggie and I."

Agent Larson replied for both when he said, "That you were the shooter that took down the two terrorists in the Middletown Diner yesterday. She couldn't say enough good about what you did. She also said that you were both in classified jobs, for an unspecified classified government agency, and that your identities and that of the agency needed to be protected. We'd be willing to bet large we could state accurately who you work for and what you do. But, as long as we don't speculate and you don't confirm or deny anything, that guess is worthless. Intelligence is like that."

Agent Bell added, "She talked to us about you as the shooter in the diner mostly because she was trying to relate to me."

Annie remembered Agent Burk's comment about an agent that worked for her and guessed it was probably Jo she was talking about. Annie filed that away for future reference, just in case. Then she said, "Okay, I'm good with that. Please forget you ever saw me and keep any guesses to yourself, okay?"

"Absolutely."

Annie preceded them back over to the van and said, "OK, Agents, Troopers, pleasure working with all of you. Auggie and I are out of here. Give our regards and thanks to Agent Burk for the timely support."

They shook hands and left. As she and Auggie walked back to the car, Annie touched the button on her iPhone and saw with some surprise the time was now a little after noon. She said "Auggie, you call in, I'll get us back on the road. We need to make some time if we are going to get back there before the storage unit closes."

"I wish you would call in."

"Huh? Why?"

"Joan is really pissed."

"Really? Why?"

"Because you ignored her direct order and took them down instead of waiting for backup. As usual. You didn't even have to go to Russia to do it. She should be used to it by now, especially after yesterday, but she isn't. She about ripped my ear off through the phone when she got the call from the FBI."

"What direct order? I didn't hear any direct order. That's the truth. Besides, what the hell did she expect me to do? The idiots crashed their van. I couldn't just leave cold blooded killers loose on foot to harm these nice farm folks. Besides, I knew right where they were; I had a clear advantage, and I darn sure didn't want to let them get away just so I could keep looking over my shoulder. Screw it. If I'd heard her, I would have done it anyway."

"I know that. And so does she. But she's still pissed."

"Then she can enjoy being pissed. I don't give a crap. I'll call."

"Good."

When they were out of ear shot from the rest of the folks on the scene, Annie pulled out her phone and called Joan on her encrypted line.

She answered on the first ring with, "Annie, why did you disobey my direct order and take those guys on by yourself with Auggie there? Why didn't you wait for backup?"

"Joan, I did _not_ know you even gave the order till a few seconds ago when Auggie told me. Apparently you got on the phone after I left the car. But, even if I had, I'd have done it anyway. I had a clear advantage. The idiots crashed their van. I couldn't just drive away and leave cold blooded killers like that loose in this nice farm community. Besides, I knew exactly where they were. They were most likely injured, at the very least disoriented. The way that van tumbled they had to feel like bagged cats in a clothes dryer. They didn't know which way was up.

"I had time to spare to set up my ambush and a near perfect place to stage it. The first guy hauled himself up into a sitting position outside a window on the side of the van, picked up his AK47 and stared to scan. When it was evident he was going see the Vette where Auggie was hiding, I told him to 'drop it.' He didn't. He turned to shoot at me. I shot him instead, five times I think. He fell back in the van with a big piece of his head missing. Apparently the kid inside didn't much care for the idea of emulating what landed on him, so he surrendered. No big deal.

"I searched the van, took pictures of everything including some documents we found. Auggie mirrored the kid's hard drive, and I think the FBI will be able to get the kid to tell his life story even after they Mirandize him, which they hadn't done when I left. This is good. Plus, it had a heck of a lot better ending by coincidence that some missions I've been on that went according to plan."

"What am I going to do with you two?"

"Enjoy the success? Joan, we were instrumental in taking down an active and very vicious terrorist cell with little or no collateral damage. It was coincidence that we were there yesterday, but we responded as well or better than could be expected. And you are giving us a low score on what, style points? I don't get it."

"We need to talk, Annie. See me when you get back in here Monday."

"Monday, I thought Thursday. I want to know how the hell those guys found us. I think there might still be one out there, because the kid here may not have a driver's license. That would mean someone else, some third person, drove the car away that they took the shotguns out of when I first spotted them. We were within a few feet of the middle of nowhere on a country road, not even the best country road according to Google, and these guys zeroed right in on us. Drove right up behind us. Did Stu and company learn anything from that hard drive? I think that kid was their traveling geek; he didn't look or act like a hard core die for virgins type. He surrendered pretty quick when his partner fell on him stone dead-"

"No, they haven't figured it out yet," Joan snapped. "They haven't even had it for an hour. But I asked them the same questions. I'll mention your concerns about a possible third person to the FBI. Now, get your mind off this; don't attract any attention on the way home; get off the line and don't come back till Monday. I need the extra four days just to cool off," Joan said.

"Right. Monday it is," Annie replied. Her phone beeped and showed the call had already ended. She shrugged her shoulders. At that moment she didn't give a crap what Joan thought. She'd done the right thing, and she'd be willing to defend it in front of anybody. Arthur, the DNI, bring them on.

It was clear from Auggie's expression he heard most of the conversation. He confirmed that when he said, "I'll give Stu a call after we are back in the apartment and see if he's learned anything. I want to play back that bit of driving you did back there to find out how fast we were going. I didn't want to know at the time, but I'm really curious now."

"Don't ask the questions if you don't want to know the answers," she said laughing.

Auggie grunted.

Annie added, "By the way, if we are going to use this car to chase down bad guys, it needs better shocks. I realize the collector value says leave the originals on it, but I'd rather have the originals in a box with a good set of high performance shocks on it. It was floating all over the place on me," Annie said matter-of-factly.

"I have to agree. I could feel it too, especially after the rises when it rebounded pretty much un-damped," said Auggie to Annie's surprise.

###

When they got back to the car, Auggie got back in while Annie walked around it looking for damage or anything that didn't look right. The tires were all up though they'd had some damage. They could ride home on them, but they should be replaced. She couldn't see any damage to the body work or the side pipes from bottoming out in the dips or being wracked sliding through the two really harsh corners. The tire damage was mostly from the bootlegger turn. She grimaced at what the tires were going to cost her and wondered if she could get Joan to pay for them. _Couldn't hurt to ask. Yeah, right. Good luck with that, Annie. Maybe have Auggie ask? Now there's an idea. _

She reached in, released the hood and took a look at the engine. She scanned the hoses, looked for leaks of any kind and checked the belts, which were of indeterminate age, for fraying. She saw they were checked from age but not frayed. She made a mental note to replace them and save the originals. The radiator hoses looked checked and old as well. She made another note to replace them and flush the cooling system. Then she brushed away some small stones to make a place for her knee, went down on her right knee, gasped, remembered it was the one she dropped onto in the restaurant yesterday and immediately switched to her other knee. She leaned her head down close to the road and looked underneath. There was no evidence of drips or other leakage, or anything that hung down that shouldn't be there. Satisfied with what she saw, she stood up, walked over to the shoulder of the road, picked a big broad leaf off a weed and folded it to make a squeegee for the oil level dip stick. She returned to the front of the car, located the engine oil dip stick, pulled it out, wiped the oil off it, reinserted it till it bottomed, pulled it back out, saw the oil was just a little below the full mark, wiped it again out of habit, reinserted it and made sure it was all the way in.

Confident the car was ready to travel, she tossed the leaf, closed the hood, moved back behind the car out of sight of the gathering crowd by the van and reached into her pocket for the fresh magazine while she drew the Glock. Her trigger finger extended along the slide as her hand slid smoothly around the grip to press the magazine release with her thumb. She caught the half-full magazine, palm slapped in the full one, gave it a visual check for full insertion, and re-holstered. Out of habit she checked the counter holes along the back of the magazine she'd removed, and her eyes registered she had five rounds remaining which confirmed she had fired five shots at the guy sitting on the van. She moved over close to her side of the car, leaned in, and grabbed the keys. She walked to the trunk, opened it and a couple of minutes later closed it, the replenished magazine in her vest pocket, the Glock back in her holster.

Finally, with her nerves settled down, she sat in the seat, relaxed into it for a couple of seconds and took a deep breath. She used the time to take stock of herself, how she felt, before she fastened the seat belt, stuck the key in the ignition and started the car. She looked over at Auggie, reached over palm up as his hand found hers. Their fingers interlocked, she said, "I'm fine, sweetheart. The car's fine. There's nothing dripping or leaking, tires are all up, engine oil is where it should be, gages look good. The magazine is reloaded. I still have the Glock in the holster on my hip. I'm good to go. I'll get us home. I had enough physical activity to work off part of the Adrenaline, and this wasn't nearly as big a dump as yesterday, so I'm no longer shaky or nauseated."

Auggie breathed, "Okay. Thanks for taking care of us."

Annie could see the tension he felt for what she knew he regarded as his helplessness in this situation. She said, "Auggie, you have no idea now much having you with me helped. I wouldn't have had nearly the advantage if it wasn't for you holding that phone where I could hear. Stu was only able to give me good input because you had already set up the pursuit SW to have the parameters for this car in it. All I did was manipulate the controls and shoot the guy. It was a total team effort. Please never doubt my respect and gratitude for what you did to make this a success."

Annie saw some of the tension go out of his face, then he shifted his eyes in her direction and said, "Thanks. I love you."

"I love you too, Auggie." Annie could see on his face the struggle to put this behind them, at least for the trip home.

That was confirmed when he said, "That was one hell of a ride, Ms. Walker! You turned this old car every which way but loose. I'm not in a hurry to do that again, but you can certainly put the thrill back into driving on a country road. I don't know that I've _ever_ ridden in a car driven that close to the edge before. Not your first rodeo, huh?"

Annie laughed, the tension spilled out of her; he could do that. She gave his hand another squeeze and said, "It was not my first rodeo. It definitely was an E-Ticket ride for me too. I'm going to get this show on the road; it's closing in on one o'clock. I think we need to watch for a fast food place, I'm going to need to eat something before very long; although the way this area looks, they may be a bit farther apart than we are used to."

"See if we pass an Arby's, I could eat one of their Market Fresh Sandwiches," Auggie replied obviously warming to the idea of some food.

"Deal," she said, then shifted the car into first gear, drove onto the road, checked for the non-existent traffic at the stop sign, and made the left back onto Quaker Valley Road. She accelerated to 55 while she payed attention to the car. She listened and stayed alert for anything that felt different, then slowed and pulled off on the shoulder as the ambulance with paramedics passed them going the other direction, lights flashing. By the time she turned right onto the 34 South to resume their trip, she had convinced herself the car was none the worse for wear.

The rest of the drive was delightfully uneventful. They passed up an Arby's near Gettysburg because they thought it was too close to Carlisle and being recognized was still a risk.

They finally found an Arby's on the outskirts of Fredrick, Maryland. She and Auggie sat in a booth where she had a good view of the car and both entrance doors. They devoured turkey bacon ranch sandwiches and a diet cola. Neither wanted the fries.

Back on the road feeling human again, they merged onto Interstate 270 and finished the trip to Auggie's apartment. As inviting as the bed looked, Annie insisted on getting her stuff into the apartment. All her guns but the SIG P238 went into the 'spy safe' Auggie'd had installed for her in his apartment that only she knew the combination to.

She took off the Versa Max Holster for the Glock, put on the MicroTuck for the P238 at five o'clock, slid the SIG into it, and did a quick check to make sure it didn't print it's outline against the cover vest. She stayed armed since she wasn't on duty, and she wasn't completely sure the incident was over. After a moment's hesitation, she checked her text messages and found the one from Auggie that told her she had an e-mail on her Smithsonian account with the permit on it.

She used her laptop at Auggie's to download and print the permit, trimmed it to size and stuck it in her wallet just in case the DC gun Nazi's stopped her.

Finally, she drove the Corvette to a gas station, topped it up with premium and swapped it for the Golf at the storage place. Auggie had offered to accompany her; she'd accepted.

Annie marveled once again at what a slug the Golf was as they drove back to Auggie's. Annie looked over at Auggie briefly and said, "I don't feel like a drink at all, how about we just go back to your apartment and hang out till we fall asleep?"

"I've got a better idea."

"You do."

"Yeah."

"What's that?" She said pretty sure she knew _exactly_ what the better idea was.

"I'll show you when we get there."

He did. She agreed, it was definitely a better idea.


End file.
